Prior to Saturday night's game in Dallas, the Stars honored Ed Belfour, the goaltender that led the franchise to its only Stanley Cup back in 1999. After the game started, both goaltenders attempted to do the best Belfour impression that they could do, but one did it slightly better than the other.
Kari Lehtonen matched Niklas Backstrom on Saturday night, and when the game went to a shootout, Lehtonen got the best of things as the Stars managed to hold off the Wild 2-1.
After a scoreless first period, the Stars drew first blood with a power play goal from Mike Ribeiro to take a 1-0 lead. That goal came at the 15:12 mark of the second period, and the Stars held that lead until the 5:18 mark of the third period, when Kyle Brodziak evened things up for the Wild with his fifteenth goal of the year.
Following a scoreless overtime, we went to a shootout. Newly acquired Kyle Christensen was stopped by Lehtonen, and Loui Erickson beat Backstrom to give Dallas a 1-0 advantage. Matt Cullen managed to solve Lehtonen to even things back up for the Wild, but that was quickly erased when Jamie Benn beat Backstrom to give the advantage back to the Stars at 2-1. When Lehtonen stopped Jared Spurgeon's attempt, the extra point for the evening went to Dallas.
Lehtonen was named the game's top star after his 37-save performance, and Ribeiro was named the game's second star. Dany Heatley took the third star designation for Minnesota.
Despite the loss, Minnesota remains in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, two points ahead of Dallas.
The Wild will next take to the ice on Tuesday night, when they travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets.