Stars rout Wild 7-2 to sweep home-and-home set and season series
DALLAS (AP) — Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin and Jason Robertson — Dallas’ four top goal producers — scored and the Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 7-2 on Wednesday night to sweep a home-and-home set and the season series.
Hintz leads the Stars with 17 goals, followed by Pavelski and Seguin at 16 and Robertson with 15. Dallas is the first NHL team this season with four players with at least 15 goals each.
Nils Lundqvist had a goal and an assist and Matt Duchene and Sam Steel also scored to help the Stars spoil Minnesota goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s NHL debut.
The 21-year-old Wallstedt made 24 saves. The Wild are 1-6-0 in their last seven games.
Wallstedt was brought up from Iowa of the AHL to provide a break for Marc-Andre Fleury, the 39-year-old who last Saturday tied Patrick Roy for second place on the career victory list at 551. Fleury had started five straight games (1-4-0) and played six consecutive since Filip Gustavsson was injured Dec. 30.
Scott Wedgewood stopped 21 shots for Dallas, which is 7-0-3 in its last 10 games against Minnesota. Esa Lindell had three assists and Mason Marchment had two.
Wedgewood sat out Monday night in Dallas’ 4-0 victory at Minnesota, where callup Matt Murray had his first NHL shutout in his season debut and fourth career game.
Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist and Ryan Hartman also scored for the Wild.
Dallas swept the three games against Minnesota, outscoring the Wild 19-5.
Fleury sat for a Minnesota team missing top scorer Kirill Kaprizov and other key players because of injury.
“We’re holding off on the parades,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I think we responded the way we need to respond against that team and found a way to win two games. Did some really good things.”
Wallstedt, whose parents traveled from Sweden for the game, said he was nervous to begin the game.
“A lot of pucks were just bouncing off me,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I could catch anything.”
While appearing composed throughout, he said, “There’s definitely some Swedish swear words and so on when you get off the ice.”
Pavelski gave Dallas a 1-0 lead late in the first period. Hintz scored while the teams skated 4 on 4, putting the Stars ahead 3-0 late in the second period. Robertson scored midway through the third period for a 4-1 lead. Seguin scored at 16:10 of the third.
Wedgewood made his 11th start in Dallas’ last 12 games since All-Star Jake Oettinger was sidelined with a lower-body injury Dec. 15.
Baldy avoided Minnesota’s second consecutive shutout early in the third period when a shot by Brock Faber from the high slot skipped off Boldy’s shoulder past Wedgewood.
UP NEXT
Wild: Host Philadelphia on Friday night to begin a three-game homestand.
Stars: Host Nashville on Friday night for the second time in seven days. The Predators won 4-3 on Saturday.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
