Ryan S. ClarkApr 18, 2026, 10:50 PM ET
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DALLAS — An unfamiliar feeling for the Minnesota Wild came at the expense of an all-too familiar experience for Jake Oettinger and the Dallas Stars.
The Wild’s 6-1 win Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals was the first time they’ve won a playoff game since April 17, 2023, when they beat, you guessed it, the Stars.
Even that loss from three years ago is part of a much larger pattern for the Stars. Losing Game 1 in front of their fans at the American Airlines Center marked the ninth time in the last 11 playoff series that they’ve fallen in the opening contest.
Dallas’ Game 1 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche by four goals in last year’s quarterfinal round extended its streak to eight straight Game 1 losses. The Stars snapped that streak with a semifinal round win against the Winnipeg Jets and won a second Game 1 in a row in the Western Conference final vs. the Edmonton Oilers.
But a year later, here they are, right back in a 1-0 series hole.
“It’s a long series, it’s a best of seven and it’s one game,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said when asked about his team’s Game 1 struggles. “We have to be better than that but we there’s a good chance to win this one still. It’s just one game but we have to be better. We have to move on and get back to it.”
Their latest loss started when Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy played a series of tic-tac-toe passes on the Wild’s first power play that led to Joel Eriksson Ek beating Oettinger with no one around him at the low slot for a 1-0 with 15:35 remaining in the first. Eriksson Ek’s opening salvo was the first of four unanswered goals with three of them coming in the second period.
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Oettinger allowing four goals not even through two full periods created the belief he could be pulled again after what happened last season. In the 2025 Western Conference final, he allowed two goals on Edmonton’s first two shots in a Game 5 loss. The fallout from that decision to pull Oettinger — along with losing in the conference final for a third straight year — led to the Stars firing former coach Peter DeBoer and hiring Glen Gulutzan, an Oilers assistant.
Advancing to three consecutive finals reinforced how the Stars are in a championship window now. But that’s also come with its share of questions with Oettinger’s performances being among them.
“I think the last goal was bad, but I think I did good things and I think there are things I could have been better at,” Oettinger said.
Gulutzan said he never considered pulling Oettinger after the Wild went up 4-0.
“Nothing for me was on our goaltending,” Gulutzan said. “For me, it was certainly on our specialty teams needing to be better and our 5-on-5 play wasn’t good enough.”
The Stars cut the lead to 4-1 with less than five minutes left in the frame when Jason Robertson scored on the extra-skater advantage. Robertson’s goal was the first moment since the opening puck drop that brought back an audible noise beyond groans to the American Airlines Center for the first time since the opening puck drop.
Those groans would eventually return when the Stars faced challenges such as when Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen were on a 2-on-1 only for Johnston to hold onto the puck and fire a shot wide of Wild rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt with 2:44 left. Wallstedt finished the win with 27 saves.
“We didn’t get our forecheck rolling that’s for sure,” Rantanen said. “That’s why they were quickly getting pucks out of their [defensive] zone, and we only started to that basically in the third and at the end of the second period. That’s definitely one thing; we want to make them defend more because they were kind of on us for sure for most of the second period.”
Discussing their Game 1 struggles also led to the Stars facing a couple more familiar questions on offense. The Stars scored five times over their final four games against the Oilers last spring.
Did Gulutzan see anything about his team’s offensive struggles in Game 1 that reminded him of last year’s conference final?
“It’s quite simple … you’re not going anywhere, if you’re not going to get your nose over the puck and win some battles,” Gulutzan said. “And when there’s lots of energy out there on the ice, and you’re on the wrong end of those, bad things happen and it just spiraled on us a little bit.”
The series resumes Monday with a Game 2 that will either see the Wild come a step closer toward winning their first playoff series since 2015 or see the Stars draw level before heading to St. Paul, Minnesota, for Games 3 and 4.
Of the previous eight series in which the Stars dropped Game 1, they rallied to win six of those series and advance to the next round.
Heiskanen, Oettinger and Rantanen all talked about how the Stars can draw from their past experiences of coming from behind. But Dallas has also seen how one defeat can snowball into losing a series.
“I think all the guys understand urgency,” Gulutzan said. “This is a veteran group. They understand urgency.”
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