𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Stanley Cup playoffs’ must-watch first-round series has had its first did-you-watch-that game.

Wyatt Johnston scored in double overtime at 12:54 a.m. on Thursday morning to give the Dallas Stars a 4-3 win and 2-1 series lead over the Minnesota Wild going into Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 between the Central Division heavyweights and Stanley Cup contenders.

If Minnesota loses this series, it’ll be thinking about the five power plays it had in the third period and overtime in Game 3 all summer.

After rallying from a 2-0 deficit on goals by Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Michael McCarron, the Wild had two chances to turn a 3-2 lead into a 4-2 lead on early-third-period power plays, only to fail miserably.

They then had three power plays to break a 3-3 tie — two in overtime — after Matt Duchene scored a power-play goal to tie it after he’d, on the same shift, denied Matt Boldy a shorthanded goal with a hustling backcheck and stickcheck.

“Your heart goes in your throat,” Duchene said of his goal-saving backcheck. “It’s a ‘Holy s—’ moment, for sure.”

The Wild drew two power plays in the first overtime, one that carried into the second, and the closest they came to scoring was Kirill Kaprizov hitting the post.

So you just knew what was going to happen when Dallas earned a second consecutive power play when dead-tired rookie Danila Yurov airmailed a puck high into the stands in double overtime.

On the ensuing power play, Johnston scored his second career overtime winner by extending his stick and redirecting Miro Heiskanen’s twice-deflected shot past Jesper Wallstedt to send what had been a loud, anxious crowd standing throughout both overtimes home disenchanted.

“It hit Moose’s finger first,” Wallstedt said of Marcus Foligno. “He’s just trying to do his job and block it. I still had a good sight on it and was going to grab it, and then it goes off of Johnston’s blade and then his shaft and then over my shoulder. That’s what happens.”

When a best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 245-124 (.664).

“Whether we were 4-for-4 on the power play tonight or 0-for-whatever we were, that doesn’t change how we have to approach the next game,” Quinn Hughes said of the Wild’s 1-for-7 power play. “We’re gonna need it again. And obviously felt like we had our looks to be the difference and just didn’t come.”

As far as Wild playoff clunkers go, this looked like it was going to be classic from the outset.

The game ops brought the electricity during one heck of a hype-up pregame that had the crowd buzzing. Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson brought it during one electric pregame “Let’s Play Hockey” that had the crowd erupting.

But in just 85 seconds, the Stars silenced the crowd with a Mikko Rantanen power-play goal after one of the Wild’s most gentlemanly, least penalized players ever, Jonas Brodin, was whistled for tripping 65 seconds in.

By the 13:48 mark, it was 2-0 Dallas as that once exhilarated crowd grew even more tense with Boldy in the trainer’s room after being plunked on the back of the head by Stars captain Jamie Benn’s stick.

After Johansson cut the deficit in half late in the first, Boldy reemerged in the second and put forth a highlight-reel shift to help the Wild tie the game five minutes into the period. He weaved through the neutral zone, split three Stars defenders between the circles and laid the puck on a tee for a Joel Eriksson Ek goal into a gaping net.

“Just trying to make a play,” Boldy said. “I didn’t think I had a shot, so just tried to get around them. Ek did a great job getting open.”

But after Michael McCarron gave the Wild a 3-2 lead seconds after they had killed consecutive minors, including a five-on-three, they had two golden opportunities to extend their lead to on power plays, and the Stars’ penalty kill extinguished both.

Johnston’s goal came in 30 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time — most amongst Stars forwards. Quinn Hughes logged 43:47, while Miro Heiskanen logged 43:05.

“If you win 6-1 or lose in triple overtime, it’s the same, and it’s going to be a long series for a reason,” McCarron said. “And right now, it seems like it’s neck and neck between the two.”

‘Tons of penalties’

When Boldy’s clearing attempt during a Wild penalty kill soared over the neutral zone, over the offensive zone, over Jake Oettinger and over the glass from 180 feet away, it looked like it would spell disaster for the Wild.

Instead, it turned into a nightmare for Dallas.

Boldy’s delay-of-game penalty late in the second period — with Ryan Hartman already in the box for cross-checking Radek Faksa — gave the Stars 41 seconds of a five-on-three power play. The Wild penalty kill stood firm, though, with Jake Middleton winning a puck battle with Duchene in the corner to get a critical clear.

Then, just as the clock ticked down on Boldy’s penalty, Jared Spurgeon beat Dallas’ Mavrik Bourque to a puck behind the net and nudged it to Brodin, who found Nick Foligno for the outlet pass, while McCarron trucked his way up the middle of the ice. Foligno found him in stride at center ice, and McCarron sniped a shot through a Thomas Harley screen — blocker side on Oettinger, the fourth such Minnesota goal in the last two games — to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead and send the home crowd into a tizzy.

Still, the Wild were hardly celebrating their penalty kill. One of the league’s most disciplined teams in the regular season, Minnesota gave Dallas eight power plays, and the Stars scored on three of them.

“It’s been tons of penalties on both sides,” McCarron said. “First round, sometimes it’s like that. The refs are amped up just like us and maybe trigger-happy. But at the same time, I mean, not ideal. They got three power-play goals, and it’s probably the difference in the game.

“Taking a lot of minors right now. We’ve talked about it. We’re gonna continue to harp on it, and hopefully this is a lesson for us.”

Quieting the crowd early

The Stars know well how raucous Grand Casino Arena can get, and were just hoping to weather the storm early on. They did one better, with Rantanen scoring a power-play goal just 85 seconds into the game to quiet the home crowd almost immediately.

“It’s always (like that on) home ice, everybody’s really excited to play in front of their fans,” Rantanen said before the game. “They’re going to be really humming at the start, so we’ve got to match the intensity, the physicality. … It’s about executing under pressure.”

Dallas did. Minnesota didn’t. An uncharacteristic offensive-zone tripping penalty by Brodin — essentially shoving Sam Steel to the ice along the boards — put the Wild shorthanded, and the Stars didn’t waste any time. Jason Robertson caught Brock Faber flat-footed as he streaked down the left wing, and Rantanen blew past Boldy on the other side. Robertson hit the net-crashing Rantanen with a perfect pass, and the big Finn chipped it past Wallstedt for the early lead.

Talk the talk, but not walk the walk

Marcus Foligno gave the Stars bulletin board material after a Game 2 Wild loss in Dallas by saying that the Stars can’t “hang” with the Wild at five-on-five and thus try to goad them into power plays.

Well, Foligno has not had a good series at five-on-five, and that continued in the first period Wednesday, when the Wild veteran got the puck in the slot and instead of turning and putting the puck on net, sent a sloppy pass a few feet in front of him toward the blue line for a surprised McCarron.

Duchene picked it off to trigger a two-on-one with Robertson, who ripped home his third goal of the series for a 2-0 lead.

To the dismay of the crowd, the goal came after Benn’s hit to the back of Boldy’s head went uncalled and a Benn high-stick to Yurov’s face went uncalled shortly before.

Robertson did take a penalty late in the period that led to a Wild power play. The No. 1 unit, without Boldy and Mats Zuccarello, was a mess, but the second unit came out and cut the deficit in half when Bobby Brink recorded his first career playoff point by setting up Johansson’s first goal in 11 playoff games and 17th of his career.

Zuccarello, Trenin and more injuries

The Wild entered the game already without Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin, who were considered game-time decisions with upper-body injuries. Zuccarello missed his second straight game (after receiving a Game 1 elbow to the face from Tyler Myers) and Trenin his first following an open-ice hit by Colin Blackwell in Game 2.

Brink and Nico Sturm played in their place.

And then, in the first period, the Wild looked like they had lost Boldy.

He left the game with around nine minutes left after taking a stick to the head by Benn. Boldy was in the slot in his own zone, turning his body trying to block a shot when Benn came flying across, his stick making contact and knocking Boldy to the ice. Boldy was briefly checked out by the Wild training staff and headed to the bench and down the tunnel after, he said, the concussion spotter pulled him. Before that, he appeared to show the referee a video clip on an iPad of the play. Wild coach John Hynes had an animated conversation with the referees, too.

There was no penalty on the play.

Foligno had an injury scare, as well. Late in the second period, he went down to block a shot on the penalty kill, taking a puck off the leg. But Duchene fell on top of him, and Foligno laid on the ice for a few moments with blood pouring after Duchene fell on top of him. Duchene came back and took a swing at Foligno, who emerged, his face bloody, ready to fight. Foligno tossed off his glove and helmet as he left the ice and headed to the dressing room. The veteran winger did return for the start of the third period, but the refs didn’t know why Foligno’s face was bloody. They called a major so they could review it, then rescinded the penalty on Duchene.

The Wild, by the way, have Black Aces Hunter Haight, Ben Jones and Matt Kiersted practicing with the big club just in case they’re needed in the playoffs.

“What we did was we just had some guys come over that, you know, they sit in the meetings. They have an idea what’s going on, skate with the guys,” Hynes said. “So it’s more not that they’re going to come in the lineup tonight, but it’s more to get them up to date with meetings and what’s going on with the series. I think it’s important for them, if they’re called upon.”