The Minnesota Wild are officially playing with house money. They won just 38 games in the regular season and should've been dead in the water in five games in this series. Instead, with some shaky defense and goaltending, the Dallas Stars have let their division rivals back into this best-of-seven series, and they're forced to get back on a plane to go to the Xcel Energy Center for what could be a very scary Game 6 for the favorites.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
To their credit, the Wild have been underdogs every step of the way in this series. They were +160 in Game 5 and were as high as 8 to 1 win Game 5 in live betting when they were down 4-3 with just a few minutes left to play, but they pulled the game out of the fire thanks to goals by Mikko Koivu late in the third and early in overtime.
We suspect that both teams will be on the minus side of even money in this game. Dallas will very likely be the short favorite, and we think we'll see a similar line to what we had in Game 3 when the Stars were just -110 chalks.
GOALIE REPORT
The final stats are going to say that Devan Dubnyk allowed four goals on Friday night, but he deserves all the credit in the world for standing on his head and getting the job done. He faced 15 shots in the third period and three more in the first few minutes of overtime and turned away everything he saw in the last 15 minutes or so in the game when it all looked like it was going to come crashing down.
Dubnyk's GAA is still just a tick below 3.00 for this series, but we have to remember that he's going against one of the best offenses in the NHL night in and night out.
The Stars meanwhile, have some questions to answer. Lindy Ruff elected to let Antti Niemi start Games 4 and 5 of this series, and if we had to guess, he's going to turn back to his Games 1 and 2 starter, Kari Lehtonen. To his credit, Lehtonen played two really strong games to start this series, but he lost his job because of his awful Game 3.
Niemi allowed five goals on just 24 shots in Game 5, including allowing a soft one to get past him in OT.
LIVE BETTING
Dallas has been incredibly disciplined in this series, taking just 13 penalties in the five games. The Stars weren't in the sin bin once in Game 5, and that's why it was so surprising the Wild managed to score five even strength goals after scoring just six of the sorts in the first four games combined.
Minnesota has just two power play goals, but its play at even strength has been a big concern throughout this series. The Stars will definitely be helped in this one by staying out of the box.
QUICK PICK
If Zach Parise comes back in this game for the Wild, we might feel differently about the whole thing. As it is, Minnesota still feels outgunned. The Wild are hitting hard in this series and digging out a lot of those 50/50 pucks, and they're doing a great job in the faceoff circle. Little things often mean a lot this time of year, but they shouldn't when you're playing against a team with so much in the way of talent.
As long as the Stars keep their feet on the ground and don't get super frustrated as the Capitals have against the Flyers, we expect them to finish off this series on Sunday afternoon in St. Paul.
NHL Odds: Stars 2, Wild 0
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Don’t miss out on getting paid because you couldn’t bet. Click here and deposit at BookMaker now! The matchup between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild will start at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at the Xcel Energy Center. Game 6 of this series will be televised nationally on NBC.
