Roope Hintz picked up a hat-trick as well as an assist as the Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-3 in Game 2 of their Western Conference First Round series at the American Airlines Center.

Hintz's big night helped Dallas even the series, which moves to Minnesota for Game 3 on Friday night at 9:30pm Eastern time.

The forward is the first player to score an even strength, power play and shorthanded goal in the same playoff game since Tyler Johnson did it for Tampa Bay in Game 2 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Final.

"Hintz is elite and he's capable of taking over games like that, and we needed him", said Stars head coach Peter DeBoer. "Our team with what happened with [Joe (Pavelski] the other night (concussion protocol), a little bit rattled, we needed our best players step up tonight and make a statement and they did, every one of them, not just Roope."

Miro Heiskanen had four assists and Evgeni Dadonov scored twice for Dallas while Jake Oettinger made 23 saves.

Oskar Sundqvist, Frederick Gaudreau and Marcus Johansson each scored. Gustav Nyquist and Matt Dumba each had two assists for Minnesota.

Marc-Andre Fleury started in net for the Wild two nights after Filip Gustavsson made 51 saves in a double overtime win and the veteran allowed seven goals on 31 shots.

"Embarrassing on my part, giving up seven goals like that in the playoffs", he said. "I want to come in and give a chance to my team to stay in the game and win, and that's not what I did. Gave up too many goals.

"I think we had to open up, try to come back in the game, [but] we gave up more chances. Bottom line, I didn't make any key saves in the game."

Big night on the power play propels Dallas

Hintz gave the Stars a 1-0 lead, scoring on a breakaway with his team shorthanded.

Tyler Seguin then doubled Dallas' advantage with 8:40 left in the first period, redirecting Jason Robertson's one-timer past Fleury.

"It was way better start than last game (outshot 10-5 in the first period)", Hintz said. "That's how we have to start here at home especially. Amd when we go on the road, we have to play there like we used to play there in the regular season."

Sundqvist cut it to 2-1 as Nyquist's backhand deflected off his skate near the far post.

Jamie Benn made it a two goal game again, scoring on the power play and Dadonov extended the lead to 4-1 on a rebound of a shot by Wyatt Johnston.

Johansson brought Minnesota to 4-2, scoring on the power play and just 11 seconds later, Gaudreau cut it to 4-3 after beating Stars defenseman Colin Miller.

"We knew they weren't going to quit", said Benn. "It's tough to give up two like that, but we stuck with it and bounced right back."

Dadonov then scored his second of the game, redirecting a shot from the edge of the right faceoff circle. Hintz made it 6-3 on a breakaway.

"This is just a weird game, I thought, to be honest", said Nyquist. "I think we started the game good. We came out with a lot of jump and got it back to 2-1.

"The same in the second. We got it back to 4-3. Just lost ourselves a little bit, gave them a couple easy chances that we don't usually do. Just sharpen that up and we'll be good to go."

Hintz completed the hat-trick redirecting a feed by Robertson with Dallas on the power play.

"They had a shorthanded breakaway and two power-play goals. What would you like 'Flower' to do, right?", said Wild head coach Dean Evason. 

"He made some incredible saves for us. We just spoke of all the odd-man rushes that we gave up. Another one was a breakaway, another was a power play. That's what, five?"

"We gave them opportunities. They took them too. They played really well, but we didn't do the right things in front of our goaltender tonight."

Dallas went 3 for 6 on the power play while Minnesota was just 1 for 5.

"I mean we don't want to (take penalties)", said Wild defenseman Jake Middleton. "When you look at us 5-on-5, we're playing really well. It's been kind of unfortunate we've put ourselves in these situations through the first two games, but it's something we have to work on.

"If we play 5-on-5, I think we all know we're the better team in that aspect of the game."