Stars-Wild thoughts

A few thoughts on Tuesday’s 4-2 Stars win.

I thought Marty Turco was very good. Very solid. He kept it simple, didn’t try to do too much and looked in control out there. He was in the right place at the right time on a lot of stuff, especially some of the deflections, and came up with a couple of really nice saves on some quality chances in other cases. It was a good outing for him. He’ll be getting the start in Columbus on Thursday.

The goal by Mike Modano to make it 3-1 and the one by Jamie Benn to make it 4-2 were huge. Both came less than a minute after the Wild had scored to cut the lead to one goal. Talk about your momentum killers. Both those Minnesota goals could have been huge turning points and something Minnesota could have built some momentum on, but the Modano and Benn goals just sucked the life right out of Minnesota.

I thought Steve Ott provided some life to the Stars with a couple of fights, especially the one after the Cal Clutterbuck hit on Brad Richards. It was a clean hit, but Richards is their top skill guy and it’s pretty much a given if your skill guy gets hit like that there is going to be a response. Ott’s the guy who responded and he responded well. He took the extra minor for roughing. Do they even call instigating anymore? Anyway, he took the extra penalty and the Stars killed it off. That’s what they needed to do, and they did.

It was a big win and got them to within one point of eighth for a couple of hours. Detroit rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 in San Jose, so the Stars are still three points back.

Big game in Columbus on Thursday. It’s one of four road games they have before the break. 

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