Minnesota Wild vs Dallas Stars: Post game wrap up

Tonight was certainly an interesting night for the Wild. It wasn't pretty, but somehow they managed to get the 3-2 win (In OT) against their division rival despite being outshot 2-1 for the entire duration of the game.

Erik Haula scored his first NHL goal tonight on a brilliant play, especially for a rookie player. Haula blocked a shot taken by one of the Dallas defensemen, and headed towards the Stars net. He chipped the puck up and off the glass to get it past the defenseman, and then made a straight beeline for Kari Lehtonen. He wristed a beauty of a shot right past Letonen. He said after the game that "It took awhile for the chills to go away" after realizing he scored his first NHL goal.

Ryan Suter also scored for the Wild, netting his 6^th goal of the season. Suter also played 32:15. Dallas tied the game up in the 3d with a goal by Alex Chiasson, and the Wild failed to end the game in regulation.

Jonas Brodin was hurt in the 3^rd period when he took a stick to the face. There was a ton of blood, and it took the ice crew a solid five minutes to scrape the blood off the ice. Brodin, who broke his cheekbone earlier this season, returned to the game after a long absence (most likely getting stitches) from the bench.

Elk River, MN native Nate Prosser scored the game winning goal in overtime. After the game, Prosser said that today was like a dream. He was able to watch the guys playing for his high school team play for Hockey Day in Minnesota and win against Stillwater earlier in the day, and then managed to score his second game winning goal in two games. Suter joked after the game that Prosser will be wanting powerplay time now.

While the win was great for the team, they desperately need to figure out why they aren't getting more SOG. It may be working for them in the short term, but eventually it will catch up to them in an ugly way. The Stars had twice as many shots as the Wild tonight, and this has been a fairly consistent trend.

Maybe they can ride it out until Parise returns. There is a huge risk in putting all of your eggs (in this case shots) in one basket/player though. Parise has been on IR for almost a month now, and he's not going to be the same player he was before. It will most likely take him a few games to get back in the typical Parise swing of things.

Darcy Kuemper again looked fantastic. Just like they did with Josh Harding earlier this season, the Wild are relying heavily on outstanding goaltending to keep them afloat. With Kuemper being so young, they can probably play him more than they would an older goaltender. At some point however, you have to address the elephant in the room that is lack of shots and puck possession.

The Wild take on the Stars again in their next game, which is Tuesday night in Dallas. Dallas plays Nashville Monday night at, so the Stars should be nice and tired for the rematch.