Wild booed off ice in Dallas whipping; Duhaime ejected

It was a stressful Sunday night in St. Paul as the Dallas Stars obliterated the Minnesota Wild 8-3 behind five power play goals and two shorthanded goals 

As Wild beat writer Michael Russo described in a post on X, the play by the Wild in the first period was “heinous.” And it really didn't improve in the second or third periods as Dallas went 5-of-8 on the power play while the Wild were 1-of-5 with the man advantage. 

Joe Pavelski scored 57 seconds into the game -- and just six seconds into a power play -- after Brandon Duhaime was whistled for interference less than a minute into the game. 

About nine minutes later the Stars got a shorthanded goal from Matt Duchene after Vinny Lettieri let a puck bounce off the side boards, directly to Duchene who then beat Marc-Andre Fleury in a one-on-one break to extend the lead. 

After a goal by Duhaime, the Stars made it 3-1 when Roman Faksa got behind Mats Zuccarello and scored after a feed got by three Wild sticks for an opening right in front of the goal. 

If you’re keeping track, that’s a bad penalty followed by awful defense in front of the net followed by a terrible penalty kill that featured a turnover that led to a shorty. Not exactly championship caliber hockey on display in the State of Hockey.