Wild's fourth line, scoring balance have become much-needed advantage vs. top-heavy Stars

AtlanticBruinsCanadiensLightningMaple LeafsPanthersRed WingsSabresSenatorsMetropolitanBlue JacketsCapitalsDevilsFlyersHurricanesIslandersPenguinsRangersCentralAvalancheBlackhawksBluesJetsMammothPredatorsStarsWildPacificCanucksDucksFlamesGolden KnightsKingsKrakenOilersSharksScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksNHL playoff predictionsBracketStanley Cup tiersNHL Draft rankingRed Light NewsletterNHL Playoffs Marcus Foligno, Michael McCarron and Nico Sturm celebrate Foligno's game-tying goal on Saturday. Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images Share articleST. PAUL, Minn. — If the Minnesota Wild win what’s now become a best-of-three series against the powerhouse Dallas Stars, depth scoring could be the catalyst. Four games into the series, only five players have scored for the Stars, and it’s each member of their No. 1 power play: Jason Robertson has four goals, Wyatt Johnston three, Matt Duchene two, and Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen one, for a total of 11. Conversely, eight players have combined to score the Wild’s 14 goals, with two of the biggest in Games 3 and 4 coming from fourth-liners Michael McCarron and Marcus Foligno. Matt Boldy, who scored the fifth home playoff overtime goal in franchise history and the first in 12 years on Saturday, said the loudest he’s ever heard the arena was when Foligno scored his game-tying goal with 5:20 left in the third period — the sixth-latest tying goal in franchise playoff history. Of course, that’s probably because Boldy blacked out during his own celebration. Nico Sturm called the shift that led to Foligno’s goal a “big boy shift.” By that point, with the Wild desperately needing a goal from somebody with their season on the line, coach John Hynes had loaded up the top line with Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Boldy. The newly formed second line of Marcus Johansson, Ryan Hartman and Bobby Brink had also provided some excellent shifts before the fourth line came through. With Sturm acting as the third forward high on the shift and Quinn Hughes busy breaking ankles all over the zone and reading perfectly off Brock Faber, McCarron won a puck battle with Heiskanen after Jake Oettinger couldn’t swallow a Faber shot 13 seconds before Foligno’s eventual goal. Finally, after Hughes gave the puck to Faber and he left it for Sturm, Sturm fired wide of the net. The puck caromed off the end wall, and Foligno got his stick on the puck as Oettinger was trying to freeze it. The puck hopped over Oettinger into the crease, and Foligno reached over to score. “Sturmy was awesome tonight,” Foligno said after the game. “I mean, I think he really shot us in the arm a little bit with just the way he played for us, and Big Mac (too). … We just get it low to high, and we hope to God that Quinny’s got a full tank and he can just kind of go for the whole shift if he wants. “It’s special when you’re a big guy out there and you’ve got Quinn and Fabes back there. It’s really cool. You just kind of get to playing in front, and they seem to find guys. So it’s a good shot by Sturmy, and I was lucky to get a piece before Oettinger could freeze it.” The Stars have gone 147:53 since their last even-strength goal and are being outscored 9-3 at five-on-five (11-3 at even strength) in the series. But the analytics show that this has mostly been an even series at five-on-five. The Wild are just cashing in on more of their chances, while the Stars haven’t finished as efficiently. In all situations, according to HockeyStats.com, the Wild have scored plus-3.1 goals above expected, and the Stars have scored 2.1 goals below expected. “You have to get production in different ways,” Hynes said. “It was great to see those guys go in and get a huge goal for us. And I thought Sturmy looked good. … I thought he was pretty good (in Game 3, too).” Where the Stars are scoring more than efficiently is on the power play. Dallas scored nine times in six games on the advantage against Minnesota in the 2023 playoffs and had a historically good power play this season — ranking 11th in NHL history with a 28.6 percent conversion rate. The Stars’ 71 power-play goals ranked first in the NHL in 2025-26, and Johnston’s 27 were the second-most in a single season since the 2004-05 lockout. So the Wild knew they’d have their hands full. But they never envisioned giving up eight power-play goals in four games (8-for-19, a 42.1 percent conversion rate). Plain and simple, the Wild have to figure out their own power play (1-for-15 over the past three games) and start shutting down Dallas’. Minnesota did a good job staying out of the box in Game 4, only taking two minors, but the Stars scored on both of those power plays. The Wild’s kill is at 57.8 percent (15th in the NHL through Saturday), and their power play is at 15.8 percent (dropping to 10th through Saturday, after going 2-for-4 in Game 1). “There’s a lot of belief in here,” Foligno said. “These are two unreal teams, and we’ve got to understand that they’re a heck of a hockey club, and it’s gonna take this type of effort every night against that squad. So there’s no pouting in here. Like (Game 3’s double-overtime loss), yeah, it sucks in the moment, but then you realize you’ve got a chance to play another great game and take a lot of positives out of last game, and we got rewarded tonight. “We’ve been in 2-2 series before, and we’ve got to play a really, really good, smart, detailed game in Dallas. I think that’s where we’re going with that. I think we played a great game again. The last two games have been great for us. We just have to minimize power-play chances, in a sense. I think the momentum of the game is something that we have to learn to control in Dallas. So all eyes are just on Game 5. You can’t look at Game 6, 7. It’s got to be just, ‘How can we win in Dallas for one game?’” Boldy is tired of the narrative being about eight consecutive first-round exits. He said that’s outside noise and that nobody in the locker room thinks or talks about it. Of course, he’s only been a part of three postseasons. Veterans like Foligno, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin often bring it up and know how much fans are dying for this organization to go on a run. Faber, part of two, knows, too. “Since we’ve been here, we’ve gotten taken out in the first round a few times,” he said. “And going through that multiple times, you start to learn the ins and outs of what playoff hockey means and what it takes. The whole team is still learning every day. We learn from each other, and we push each other. That’s it. We have a belief in the group and how far we can go and just trying to take it one step at a time. That’s all we can do.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms