Wild snakebit in 2-1 Game 2 loss to Dallas

DALLAS – Two years ago in the playoffs, Dallas Stars agitator Antoine Roussel felt he didn't toe the line well enough between being a superpest and an effective player.

The 26-year-old Frenchman vowed to do a better job this go-round.

Saturday night, Roussel did both jobs well and made his presence felt early and often during the Dallas Stars' 2-1 Game 2 victory over the Wild at American Airlines Center.

The fourth-year forward went after Erik Haula on the opening shift, turtled after a Ryan Suter check, stood over and taunted Justin Fontaine after delivering a check, ran around so much that no Wild player wanted to touch the puck during one power play and capped it all off by scoring one of the goofiest goals imaginable.

That controversial, fluky goal left goalie Devan Dubnyk livid and proved damaging as the Stars took a 2-0 stranglehold on the first-round series with Game 3 in St. Paul on Monday night. The Wild enters that pivotal game with seven consecutive losses and with seven goals in that span.

"The puck is kicked and somehow they have enough to overturn the ref's call," Dubnyk said. "It's mind-blowing that that's the outcome of that play in the playoffs."

On the same shift a linesman had to separate Roussel from going after Jason Zucker on a defensive-zone draw, Roussel's aggressive forecheck on a puck heading toward Matt Dumba caused the defenseman to back into the defensive zone instead of stepping up in the neutral zone.

That proved costly. Dumba got the puck to defenseman Marco Scandella, but his attempted clearing pass hit the skate of Stars winger Ales Hemsky and ricocheted right to Roussel behind the net. Roussel kicked the puck, and the rubber disk hopped in the air at a tight angle and landed on Dubnyk's upper back. As Dubnyk stood up to try to keep the puck from entering the net, the cage started to come off its moorings.

Referee Brad Meier waved off the goal, but after video review, the league overturned the call by ruling that the puck entered the net legally because a portion of the flexible pegs still was inside the hole on the ice.

"I don't know if anyone can really riddle me how that's a goal in the National Hockey League, but it was," Dumba said.

The Wild felt the goal shouldn't have counted because of a kicking motion so distinct that the Dallas Major League Soccer team asked the Stars via Twitter if they could loan Roussel for the summer.

"I've scored goals in many ways, but not like that," Roussel said. "I was trying to kick it back on my stick and just perfect. It looked like a [Sidney] Crosby goal or something."

In the third period, Stars captain Jamie Benn, who has a 10-game point streak (and 17 in that span) against the Wild, added a third-period breakaway goal after Nate Prosser's shot was blocked and Cody Eakin banked a perfect pass off the half wall.

That proved destructive because with 7:18 left, Scandella scored the Wild's first goal of the series.

The Wild fell behind 2-0 in a series for the seventh time in franchise history. It lost five of the previous six. In the 2014 Western Conference quarterfinals, the Wild rallied from a 2-0 and 3-2 series deficits to beat Colorado in seven games.

Torchetti felt the Wild played a "pretty good road game." After an almost lifeless Game 1, the Wild competed harder, battled and created more chances. Yet again, though, players' lack of finish — especially Mikael Granlund, who had three Grade A chances and didn't get a shot off on another shorthanded 3-on-1 rush, doomed the Wild.

"I think we played a good game, we created chances, we battled hard, but that's just the way it is right now," Granlund said. "They got the bounce and we didn't, and now it's 2-nothing and we go back home and see what's going to happen there."