DALLAS — Ryan Hartman had simply circled across the internet when a deflected puck got here towards him. He shortly scored to provide the Minnesota Wild a victory of their playoff opener - a recreation that started Monday night time and dragged into early Tuesday morning.

Hartman gathered the puck and skated in entrance of the crease earlier than lifting it over the prolonged left leg of Jake Oettinger at 1 a.m. native time, giving the Wild a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars in a greater than four-hour marathon during which each 24-year-old goalies had spectacular performances.

“Their goalie was fantastic, our goalie was fantastic,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason mentioned. “Some of the saves that both of them made were, it feels like nobody is going to score, right?”

The game-winner got here after Stars defenseman Thomas Harley had knocked the puck towards the nook, however Colin Miller was unable to clear it. The puck as a substitute ricocheted off Sam Steel’s stick and towards Hartman.

“Just a bounce that went their way,” Oettinger mentioned. “We had a couple that didn’t go our way and that’s hockey. … Tight game and two good teams, and it’s going to be a heck of a series.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night time in Dallas.

PHOTOS: Hartman aim in 2nd OT offers Wild 3-2 win over Stars in G1

The Stars had simply been turned away on an influence play after Frederick Gaudreau’s tripping penalty towards captain Jamie Benn 9:11 into that second time beyond regulation. Roope Hintz, who scored on an influence play within the second interval, hit the submit and there have been a number of different possibilities earlier than the penalty expired.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 52 pictures for the Wild, together with 12 within the third interval and 17 within the first time beyond regulation. He began Game 1 forward of three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc-André Fleury after the goalie tandem had break up video games all through a lot of the season.

Oettinger had 45 saves for the Stars in his first playoff recreation since a 64-save efficiency in Game 7 within the first spherical final May when top-seeded Calgary scored the collection clincher in time beyond regulation.

Veteran Stars middle Joe Pavelski left the sport halfway by way of the second interval after a large hit from Matt Dumba, who was solely assessed a minor roughing penalty. Referees had initially referred to as it a five-minute main, however modified it after a prolonged replay assessment.

The Stars mentioned the 38-year-old Pavelski was doing OK afterwards, however his standing for the following recreation was unsure.

“I’m not confident for Game 2,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer mentioned. “He’s okay, he’s walking out of the rink on his own OK.”

Another playoff hit Pavelski took in 2019, when nonetheless with San Jose, helped lead the NHL to develop its video assessment course of to permit referees to assessment main penalties and gave them the choice to scale back them to a minor, as occurred on the hit by Dumba.

“To be honest, I thought it was a clean hit,” Dumba mentioned. “Shoulder on shoulder. I don’t even know why I got the roughing, probably because I was just in the box already.”

Hintz and Jason Robertson, who within the common season was Dallas’ first 100-point scorer, had power-play targets simply over two minutes aside for the Stars in the course of the second interval for a 2-1 lead.

Steel tied the sport with about 5 1/2 minutes left within the second interval. His wrister got here proper after he had gained a faceoff within the defensive finish after which blocked a shot by Robertson.

Kirill Kaprizov had a power-play aim for the Wild within the last minute of the primary interval. He was proper in entrance of the web and Oettinger for a nifty deflection of captain Jared Spurgeon’s shot.

Gustav Nyquist, who bought the help on Steel’s aim, had a 50-foot shot about 5 minutes into the sport that bought previous Oettinger, nicking off the goalie’s glove and ricocheting off the fitting submit.

Gustavsson additionally had some pucks behind him that didn’t get into the web. In one rapid-fire sequence about 5 minutes into the third interval, the Stars had two pictures on aim, one other puck that went large and one other that hit the submit when followers have been already cheering what they thought was a aim.

Hintz scored from above the center of the circles solely three seconds after getting the puck off Benn’s faceoff win to begin the Stars’ first energy play. Benn took the faceoff after Pavelski bought kicked out of the circle to begin the primary energy play.

It took the Stars twice as lengthy to attain - all of six seconds - on their subsequent energy play. Pavelski gained the faceoff, with Miro Heiskanen getting the puck earlier than he dropped it to Robertson for a laser shot by way of visitors.

The Stars then killed off two energy performs, the second on a tripping penalty towards Pavelski, which happened 5 minutes earlier than he was taken out by Dumba’s huge blow.

While Pavleski remained down on the ice, Stars teammate Max Domi went after Dumba and threw a few exhausting punches earlier than they ended up in a pile on the ice, with referees and Kaprizov additionally on prime of them. Kaprizov was finally pulled again by a teammate, and Domi bought a 10-minute misconduct.

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