Ryan Hartman scored 12:20 into the second overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of their Western Conference First Round playoff series at the American Airlines Center.
Karill Kaprizov and Sam Steel also scored for the Wild while Filip Gustavsson was spectacular in net, making 51 saves in his first playoff start for the team, 17 of those saves coming in the first overtime and nine in the second.
"After the second period, I tried going into the locker room and reset there", Gustavsson said. "And then in the third [period] and first overtime, it felt like [the puck] started hitting me. Kept the rebounds close to me, and that's when I started to feel more comfortable in the game."
Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz scored for Dallas and Jake Oettinger made 45 saves for the Central Division champions.
"Just a bounce that went their way", Oettinger said. "We had a couple that didn't go our way; that's hockey. I'm just proud of the effort the guys gave."
Stars forward Joe Pavelski was knocked out of the game with 7:58 left in the second period following a hit from Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba.
"No, i'm not confident for [Pavelski's availability] for Game 2", Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "He's OK. He's walking out of the rink on his own."
Dumba was assessed a minor roughing penalty on the play.
"To be honest, I thought it was a clean hit", he said. "Shoulder on shoulder. I don't even know why I got the roughing, probably because I was just in the box already."
Wild win longest game in franchise history on Hartman goal
Kaprizov put Minnesota in front with just 58 seconds left in the first period scoring on the power play after tipping the puck from the top of the crease.
"I didn't like our start", DeBoer said. "You know, sometimes it's easier to start on the road for these Game 1's in the playoffs. Didn't like our start. I thought once we started to play in the latter part of the second period, third period, and the overtimes, we really put a lot of pressure on them. Both goalies were good. We hit a couple of posts. That's playoff hockey, those could go either way."
Hintz tied the game on the power play on a shot that came off of a faceoff win by Jamie Benn.
"It was a great hockey game with flows, we were back and forth", Wild coach Dean Evason said. "The overtimes, there were obviously some greta looks and unbelievable saves. The hockey game had everything.
"We're happy the way that we held our composure, and all of that good stuff that everybody talks about in the playoffs. We did it tonight, we've got to do it again."
Robertson gave Dallas their first lead of the night 4:13 into the second period, scoring on a power play with a shot from the top of the right circle before Steel tied the game later on in the period on a breakaway.
"That's playoff hockey to a 'T', Stars forward Max Domi said. "Obviously they played really well, got to give them credit. As a group, I think we got better as the game went on and just a couple of bounces, it could have gone either way. We'll regroup, did a lot of good things tonight, and build on that for sure."
In double overtime, the Wild won it after Colin Miller tried to clear the puck out of his own zone, but it hit off of Steel and came to Hartman, who skated in front and shot over Oettinger's outstretched left pad.
"It's been tight with them all season, but obviously it's playoff hockey and it's different", Hartman said. "We expect a good battle. We're happy with obviously getting the first win, but we can't sit and think about the win too much. We have a game to win on Wednesday and we've got to get another one."
Game 2 is Wednesday night with puck drop scheduled for 9:30pm Eastern time.