Daley's goal carries Stars to OT win over Wild

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Trevor Daley picked a nice time to score his first goal since December 7. Daley's goal with 34 seconds left in overtime lifted the Dallas Stars to a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild in the final regular season game at the American Airlines Center.

"It felt great," Daley said on NBC after the game. "The last game at home. It felt great to finally get one."

After Sergei Zubov made a nice move at the blue line to shake a Minnesota defender, he fed the puck to Daley, who skated into the left faceoff circle and scored on a wrist shot to give Dallas the win.

Stephane Robidas, Brenden Morrow and Antti Miettinen also scored for the Stars, who finished the season with a 28-11-2 record at home.

Johan Hedberg made 33 saves, including stops on three Minnesota breakaways, to improve to 12-4-0 on the season.

The game was the final of the regular season for the Wild, who missed the playoffs with a 38-37-7 record.

The Stars got the first power play of the game, but it was the Wild who got the better scoring chance. Brian Rolston got a shorthanded breakaway attempt, but Hedberg made a pad save on Rolston's wrist shot.

After the Stars failed to score on their second power play chance, Minnesota got a chance with the man-advantage and cashed in.

After taking a pass from Marian Gaborik, Mikko Koivu came from behind the goal line and put a backhand shot on net and then scored on the rebound to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at the 13:49 mark.

Hedberg kept it a 1-0 game when he made a sprawling save on a Gaborik breakaway with about three minutes left in the period.

But the Stars got the equalizer at 19:50 of the first when Robidas skated down the right wing side and beat Wild goalie Manny Fernandez with a sharp angle shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

The Stars scored two goals in 90 seconds early in the second period to take control of the game on the scoreboard.

Steve Ott backhanded the puck from the right boards to Bill Guerin, who sent a pass from behind the net to Morrow, who scored from the slot at 5:15 of the second to make it a 2-1 game.

Miettinen made it a 3-1 game at 6:45 when he came off the left wing boards, skated into the left faceoff circle and beat Fernandez with a wrist shot.

Hedberg came up with a couple more big saves, stopping Wes Walz on a shorthanded breakaway and then making nice stops on Erik Westrum and Marc Chouinard.

But it was a Hedberg turnover that helped get Minnesota back in the game in the third period. Hedberg tried to send a pass up the middle of the ice but it was knocked down by Pascal Dupuis and Mattias Weinhandl scored as Hedberg scrambled to get back in net. The time of the goal was 7:37.

Just eleven seconds later the Wild tied it. Off the ensuing faceoff, the Wild busted into the Dallas zone on a two-on-one break, Gaborik took a pass from Weinhandl and beat Hedberg with a wrist shot to tie the game at 3-3.

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