Apr 20, 2026; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston (53) and defenseman Esa Lindell (23) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) and right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) celebrates after Johnston scores an empty net goal to seal the win over the Minnesota Wild during the third period in game two of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Jerome Miron/Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
DALLAS — Wyatt Johnston scored goals on a ricochet and a roller, Matt Duchene had a tiebreaking power-play goal and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 in Game 2 to even their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
The Stars went ahead to stay with a power play winding down about four minutes into the penalty-filled second period when Duchene made a quick pass to Mikko Rantanen and then got the puck back just in front of the crease. That made it 2-1 in the kind of physical game expected between the Central Division rivals.
Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 28 shots, including a point-blank attempt by Kirill Kaprizov with 2 1/2 minutes to play when the Wild were on a power play after Dallas was penalized for too many men on the ice.
Brock Faber scored his first two playoff goals and Quinn Hughes had two assists for Minnesota, which won the opener 6-1 but missed a chance in its 15th playoff appearance to take a 2-0 series lead for the first time.
“From our end anyway, it was a playoff game. I thought they played two, we played one,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “So it’s more of what we look like, more of the way we are, but you can still see how tight it is.”
Jason Robertson, who like Johnston had 45 goals in the regular season, also scored for Dallas. Nils Lundkvist had two assists.
“It was good just to show each other what we can do, and not get kind of pushed out of the series,” said Robertson, who has scored in both games. “We’re going to try to ride the momentum into Game 3.”
The series now shifts to Minnesota.
Johnston, the 22-year-old center already in his fourth postseason and 58th playoff game, put Dallas up 1-0 midway through the first on his shot that ricocheted off the boards behind the net and then went off the left skate of goalie Jesper Wallstedt and just inside the post. Lundkvist got the primary assist for pushing the puck with his skate back to Johnston.
“Guess you try to hit the net,” Johnston said. “Good things happen when you do that.”
The Stars were on another power play in the final minute when Johnston — from a crowd in front of Oettinger — knocked the puck to the other end, with it rolling and swerving just inside the right post of an empty net.
Wallstedt, the rookie who has started both games ahead of playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, also had 28 saves.
“He was solid through the whole game,” Wild coach John Hynes said.
Right after Duchene and Rantanen combined on the power-play goal, another scuffle broke out in the corner and both of them ended up in the penalty box. That gave Minnesota a man advantage, though Oettinger kept Dallas ahead with a glove save on a shot by Boldy during the ensuring power play. Minnesota finished 0 for 4 on the power play.
“A hard-fought game by both teams,” Hynes said. “Obviously a tight-checking, hard-fought game by both teams, and you know, we won the first one, they won the second one.”
The second period ended right after Marcus Foligno got a double minor for roughing, when he basically put interfering Thomas Harley in a headlock and took him down to the ice near the boards.
Already without forward Mats Zuccarello because of an upper-body injury after he had three assists in the series opener, when he took an elbow, the Wild lost another forward. Yakov Trenin took a crushing blow at center ice from Colin Blackwell late in the first period. After staying face-down on the ice momentarily, he was helped off and never returned.
Hynes said only that Trenin had an upper-body injury.
