DALLAS — Matt Boldy scored the go-ahead power-play goal in the final minute of the second period, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.
Kirill Kaprizov added two assists and sealed the game with an empty-net goal with two minutes left. Mats Zuccarello returned from a three-game absence with an upper-body injury and scored early. Michael McCarron also scored for the Wild in the third period.
“When we play as a tight, connected five-man unit, I think we’re usually at our best,” coach John Hynes said. “I thought we were responsible, had strong attention to detail, got some key saves when we needed them.”
Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt finished with 20 saves, including 11 in the third period. Dallas starter Jake Oettinger stopped 24 shots and made a sprawling save before the second period ended.
Jason Robertson scored with 3:21 left and had earlier tallied goals in each of the first four games. He also assisted on Miro Heiskanen’s power-play one-timer. Dallas managed the goal with an extra skater on the ice but continued to struggle at five-on-five. The Stars missed all 16 of their five-on-five shots in this game, went 0-for-40 in Game 4 and are now 3 for 117 in the series.
“You just have to stick with it,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We did create some opportunities for ourselves; now we’ve got to take the next step and convert on some of them.”
Boldy has been a key scorer all postseason. He had two goals in Game 1 and the overtime winner in Game 4. He also had goals taken away late in the first period of this game and in recent contests when officials called goalie interference or a kicking motion.
The Wild return home for Game 6 on Thursday with a chance to advance to the second round for the first time since 2015. Minnesota has lost its last nine playoff series, including to Dallas in 2016 and 2023.
“We’ve got to just look to control our emotions in Game 6 and in front of our home crowd, a place where we had a good feeling leaving last time,” forward Marcus Foligno said.
Game 7, if needed, would be in Dallas on Saturday.
