The Minnesota Wild were a possessed bunch in game three. When the series returned home, they returned to their regular season form, shocking the opposition by a score of 5-3. That same Minny team did not show up in game four. They closed out their final game of the homestand with a 3-2 loss. They came close and Charlie Coyle had a tremendous solo effort for a goal. It just wasn’t meant to be though.
The goal scoring is there. The goaltending is there. All they need now is a stroke of luck. A quick five-game series would help that process and give them some much needed rest. It looks like the Hawks-Blues series is going to go the distance, so a quick advancement from the quarterfinals would be exactly what the doctor ordered for Dallas.
Read on for more on this game five tilt, if you’d like to check out some Eastern Conference delights, head on over to our previews for Islanders vs. Panthers and Rangers vs. Penguins.
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Minnesota Wild vs. Dallas Stars Game 5 Preview
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
When: Friday, April 22, 9:30 PM ET
Line: Minnesota Wild (+1.5) vs Dallas Stars (-1.5) – view all NHL lines
TV Broadcast: NBC
Betting on the Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild aren’t your team of destiny. They’re more like the car industry workers of Detroit. They work really hard. They’re underrated and they should get some more respect. They also produce some nice products every now and then. If that’s not the perfect metaphor, I don’t know what is!
They opened the scoring on Wednesday night with a Jason Pominville goal and managed to even put up their second lead of the game following the Ales Hemsky tying goal just four minutes later. It was not to be though. The Wild just couldn’t hang on or find the tying mark in the third. So they now enter a win or go home scenario at a building that they haven’t been able to muster too much success in this year.
They are 1-3 in the regular season and playoffs combined in Dallas and have been outscored 10-5 in those games as well. They are also the worst road team in the playoffs this year, going 17-7-7 away from the Xcel Energy Center during the season.
They are a gamble in this game. If history has taught us anything though, it’s that the Wild are a ‘Never say die’ team. They’ve come back in series against big teams and they’ve overcome big deficits in their short playoff history. Expect tonight’s game to be a nail biter. Maybe even an overtime nail biter at that.
By the end of it, a 1.5 goal cushion could be a gift.
Betting on the Dallas Stars
All signs point to the Dallas Stars now being the team of destiny in the West. Not that they weren’t heavily favored before, but everyone was still on the Kings and Hawks bandwagon. Well, now that both Los Angeles and Chicago are facing elimination, the Dallas Stars look like a pretty good Stanley Cup pick don’t they?
Dallas has been deadly all year on their home rink as well going 28-11-2 this season and 2-0 this playoffs at the American Airlines Center. The team loves a bit of a challenge and always rises up to it. This is something we can surely expect to see tonight with the Wild facing elimination.
The update is Tyler Seguin is still out, and Antii Niemi is back in between the pipes for game five. Not that Seguin has been truly missed, but his added shot would be useful. None the less, the Stars have been relying on their older crew to get the job done. Jason Spezza has four points, while Patrick Eaves and Ales Hemsky each have three. In fact, Ales Hemsky’s game four goal, was his first playoff tally since the Stanley Cup Finals of 2006. That’s what you get for playing most of your career in Edmonton I suppose.
Anyhow, the Stars were 27-13 on their home ice ATS this season, while the Wild are 15-24 ATS on the road. That makes our prediction a little easier going straight-up.
Writer’s Prediction
The Dallas Stars wave goodbye one final time to the Minnesota Wild with a 5-4 OT win.
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