The Dallas Stars, despite reaching the conference finals the past three seasons, have a poor record in Game 1s.
The effort in their Saturday, April 18 playoff opener was poorer than usual.
The Stars were routed 6-1 at home by the Minnesota Wild and find themselves trailing after the first game of the series for the ninth time in their last 11 openers.
Advertisement
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said “to a man,” the Wild were better than his team, which didn’t happen a lot during the regular season.
“You can’t get your game going if you’re not going to win battles,” he told reporters. “You can take any metric and if you lose skating battles and puck battles, you’re always on the receiving end of everything negative.”
The Stars, under previous coach Peter DeBoer, overcame a 5-1 loss in their 2025 playoff opener to beat the Colorado Avalanche in seven games, so they are far from in trouble.
“There’s room for growth,” Gulutzan said.
Here are the winners and losers from the opening night of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs:
Advertisement
WINNERS
Jesper Wallstedt, Minnesota Wild
Coach John Hynes chose the rookie over veteran Filip Gustavsson for Game 1. Wallstedt made 27 saves for a victory in his first playoff game. In fact, coaches made the right decisions in net in other games. Carolina veteran Frederik Andersen got the start over Brandon Bussi and had a 22-save shutout. Stuart Skinner kept the Penguins in the game during their loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Porter Martone, Philadelphia Flyers
What a move on his goal, which ended up being the game-winner at Pittsburgh. He skated hard into the zone, stopped, circled back and ripped a shot past Skinner for a 3-1 lead. Martone is 19 and just signed after his Michigan State season ended.
Wild power play
The Wild had the third-best power play in the regular season behind Dallas and the Edmonton Oilers. It connected twice in Saturday’s game, with both goals by Joel Eriksson Ek.
Advertisement
LOSERS
Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars
He was pulled in his last playoff game in 2025 by DeBoer and gave up five goals on Saturday. Gulutzan never considered pulling Oettinger, saying he didn’t think goaltending was an issue in the loss.
“I’m going to be a lot better next game,” Oettinger said.
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
The Flyers did what they could to get Crosby off his game. He took two penalties in the game, the first one for pulling off Jamie Drysdale’s helmet. He was sent off the ice for a retaliatory slash on Travis Sanheim, who had cross-checked him. That meant Crosby was unavailable as the Penguins were pressing to rally from a 3-1 deficit late in the third period.
“We have to stay out of it a little more and trust that when they try to stir it up that they’re going to be penalized for it,” Crosby told reporters.
Advertisement
Artem Zub, Ottawa Senators
The Senators defenseman delivered a big hit on Carolina’s Seth Jarvis but took the worst of it. He exited the game, leaving Ottawa short-handed on defense in a 2-0 loss. There was no update on his condition after the game.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHL playoff openers winners and losers: Stars crushed in Game 1
Read the full article here
