Dallas ruins NHL debut for Wild goaltending prospect…

Dallas ruins NHL debut for Wild goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt

Wallstedt stopped 26 of 33 shots as Minnesota fell to 3-9 against teams in Western Conference postseason position

It’s early yet for an NHL team to receive a fatal blow, especially if your team is within five points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference — as the Minnesota Wild were on Wednesday morning.

On the other hand, the Wild are a game shy of the midpoint of their season and are buried near the bottom — 13 of 16 teams — of the Western Conference. And after Wednesday night’s 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, they are 1-6-0 in their past seven games.

 

It’s early yet for an NHL team to receive a fatal blow, especially if your team is within five points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference — as the Minnesota Wild were on Wednesday morning.

 

On the other hand, the Wild are a game shy of the midpoint of their season and are buried near the bottom — 13 of 16 teams — of the Western Conference. And after Wednesday night’s 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, they are 1-6-0 in their past seven games.

 

Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson scored on odd-man rushes as the Stars swept the season series, 3-0, against their Central Division rival and ruined the NHL debut of Wild goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt.

 

It’s a real shame,” veteran defenseman Jake Middleton told reporters after the game. “Congratulations to him on playing his first NHL game, but it’s too bad we didn’t play better in front of him.”

 

Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored third-period goals for Minnesota, but the Wild fell to 3-9 this season against the eight Western Conference teams currently in playoff position.

After beating the Wild in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Stars have won all three meetings against Minnesota and outscored the Wild by a combined score of 19-5.

 

Called up Sunday from the Wild’s American Hockey League club in Iowa, Wallstedt stopped 27 of 34 shots but didn’t get a ton of help from his teammates, who couldn’t generate consistent time in the Dallas zone and created several odd-man rushes with turnovers between the blue lines.