ST. PAUL, Minn. —
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The Wild consistently created good looks at the net, but their passing and shooting touch was just off the mark all series. This time they weren’t able to generate the breakaways they did in the 3-2 loss here in Game 4, and they started to run out of steam midway through the game.
The Stars spoke about the lesson they learned from letting the Wild feed off the crowd in their 5-1 win in Game 3, and they sure responded well. The team that scored first won all six games in the series.
Evgenii Dadonov flipped a no-look pass from behind the net into the slot, where an uncontested Johnston swooped in to score his first goal of the series.
Soon after Mats Zuccarello‘s open shot sailed over the crossbar, the Stars delivered a big blow when Marchment scored with just 0.5 seconds left before the second intermission.
The Wild took a 2-1 lead on St. Louis in the playoffs last year before dropping three straight games, too.
“For the most of the games, I thought we were the better team and we still ended up losing. That’s probably the most frustrating,” Zuccarello said. “Maybe last year I think you have a feeling you lost to a better team.”
Kirill Kaprizov was their heartbeat of that series against the Blues, but the superstar left wing struggled to get going this year after a goal in Game 1. Suter, his former teammate, and fellow blue-liner Miro Heiskanen made Kaprizov work for every inch of ice and frequently met him with punishing checks.
