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The Minnesota Wild are on home ice tonight against the Dallas Stars which tends to be a great playoff atmosphere. Fans make sure they're heard that's for sure whether good or bad it all depends on the Wild's play. The regular season "home ice advantage" definitely didn't seem to be there the second half especially before Mike Yeo was fired.
Last Game
The Wild had more shots in the first period than game 1. They played better but not good enough to win. The Dallas Stars goal was a bit of a fluke as Antoine Roussel tried to stop it with his skate behind the net and it bounced over the crossbar onto Devan Dubnyk's back, who then tried to lift the net off the moorings to prevent the goal. Call on the ice was no goal but after review they called it good goal.
Match-up Preview
The Wild have played well in Game 3s in the past as LaPanta pointed out yesterday:
Wild has had some recent success in game three pic.twitter.com/xhlOyoIWAm
— Anthony LaPanta (@AnthonyLaPanta) April 17, 2016
This does not mean they will win though. They are going to have to play a lot harder than Game 1 and 2 and score first. The Wild aren't good at playing catch up. They need to come out strong and play a hard 60 minutes. Waiting until the final minutes of the game to dominate is not going to cut it. The excuses are used up by now; yes, Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek are out, we lack offensive depth with or without them quite honestly. Our PP is nonexistent besides Marco Scandella's goal, Duubs is doing his best to try to help steal games but can only do so much when we don't score consistently. Mikael Granlund is showing the most heart and effort out there, if only he could finish!
Interesting/Upsetting Stats
Jamie Benn has 4 points ( 2-2=4) so far this series.
Roussel has more goals this series than any Wild player except for Marco Scandella.
The Wild's power play was 1/5; Their PK killed all 5 penalties
Who's Hot
Ales Hemsky- 2 points (0-2=2) in last 2 games, 4 points (0-4=4) in last 5 games.
Marco Scandella- Scored the lone Wild goal on Saturday.
Who's not Hot
Cody Eakin- 1 point (0-1=1) in last 5 games
Granlund- Despite lots of heart and point blank attempts he hasn't been able to bury.
That's all for now come back later today for more articles on the series.