Mason Marchment and Max Domi each had a goal and an assist and the Dallas Stars clinched their Western Conference first-round series against the Minnesota Wild with a 4-1 win in Game 6 on Friday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston also scored and Jake Oettinger made 23 saves for the Stars, who won the final three games of the series.
Frederick Gaudreau scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 of 26 shots through two periods before he was replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury, who finished with six saves.
The Wild lost their eighth consecutive playoff series.
The team that scored first won every game of the series, and Minnesota missed a prime opportunity to take an early lead on Friday.
Ryan Hartman had an open net with the puck in the crease, but Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter lifted Hartman’s blade just as he swiped at the puck, and the Stars scored 31 seconds later.
Hintz entered the offensive zone with speed and blew past Minnesota defenseman John Klingberg at the top of the right circle before scoring short side with a wrist shot from the dot for a 1-0 lead at 6:22 of the first period.
Hintz finished with 12 points in the series (five goals, seven assists), which established a Dallas-era franchise record for points in a playoff series.
Johnston, the 19-year-old first-round pick of the Stars in 2021, scored his first NHL playoff goal to extend the lead to 2-0 at 13:37 of the second period.
Suter rimmed the puck around the wall and behind the Minnesota net. Gustavsson and Wild defenseman Jake Middleton were both unable to stop the puck before Dallas forward Evgenii Dadonov pulled it away from the wall.
He brought the puck below the goal line and made a backhand pass to Johnston coming through the slot for a one-timer.
Marchment scored on a breakaway with one second left in the second period to make it 3-0.
Dallas outshot the Wild 18-5 in the second period.
Oettinger’s shutout streak ended at 114:13 when Gaudreau received a pass alone in front of the Stars’ net and beat Oettinger with a backhand to make it 3-1 at 12:53 of the third period.
Domi scored into an empty net to make it 4-1 with 57 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
