Game 6 is Wild’s best chance to win playoff series in 11 years

The last time the Minnesota Wild won a playoff series was in 2015, when they dispatched the Central Division-winning St. Louis Blues in six games as a Wild Card team, before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup champions in the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round. Since then, despite the fact the Wild have made the playoffs in all but two seasons, they haven’t been able to advance to the second round again.

But with a 3-2 series lead and playing Game 6 on home ice, the Wild have their best chance to end the drought by eliminating the Dallas Stars. Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about an extremely important game for Minnesota on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Wild on home ice tonight, I love them in this matchup. I think Minnesota, with everything that’s happened in this series, with how, quite frankly, brutal some of Dallas’s big guns have been, I see no reason to not back the Minnesota Wild in this hockey game.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think tonight is [about] controlling emotions, staying out of the penalty box, because it’s where Dallas has been very, very effective.

I think for Wallstedt, just staying in the moment as a younger guy. You’re on the verge of knocking a team out. I think that’s where the mental side of the game becomes so important, of just staying present and taking it shot by shot, minute by minute.

Something that always worked for me was, at times, big games can feel daunting. You got 60 minutes to try to play a good team and beat them. I think just breaking it down into simple shift by shift, shot by shot, minute by minute.

I think there’s a lot of pressure at the other end of the rank. We talked about Jake Oettinger, Jekyll and Hyde at times. He’s been good in this series and bad. But I also think that there’s a factor of when you make the save. It’s not how many saves you make, it’s when you make them. If you give up a goal at the wrong time or a tough situation, it changes the whole flow of the game.

I think tonight’s going to be a big challenge for the Dallas Stars to try to get to Minnesota, especially with their mobile defensemen. I also think that their bottom pairing has done a good job. Bogosian has been very good, serviceable, and spotting him at the right times. They have a lot of guys that can play a ton of minutes up on the back end. So this is going to be a big challenge tonight for the Dallas Stars.

You can watch the full episode here…