JAMIE BENN

Ryan Hartman scored 12:20 into the second overtime and the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 in their playoff opener Monday night, and into Tuesday morning.

Pete DeBoer is jumping right back into coaching with the Dallas Stars about a month after he was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights.

The NHL playoff race is going into its final few days with both Western Conference wild-card slots still unsettled.

... That was a special moment.”Joe Pavelski had two goals and two assists and Alexander Radulov also scored twice for the Stars, who had a scoreless first period. Five of Dallas’ goals came in the second, including three on the power play and an unassisted short-handed wrist shot by Esa Lindell. Pavelski and Kiviranta added power-play goals in the third period, those against Pekka Rinne, who entered after Saros allowed five goals on 20 shots. CAPTAIN HURTStars captain Jamie Benn was injured when his right leg buckled awkwardly after a collision with Viktor Arvidsson in the second period. Three of the shots game in the first period, including a wraparound attempt into Khudobin’s pads and a hard second shot on the rebound.

With Game 5 on Saturday night, Tampa Bay was potentially 24 hours away from its second championship in franchise history after winning it in 2004. On the winning power play, Shattenkirk told Hedman to get him the puck and he'd find a lane. The shot got through, setting off a raucous celebration as Lightning players hopped off the bench to swarm Shattenkirk. Even before OT, The Lightning carried the play for much of the night and showed the depth and talent that has made them a Cup contender for several years. The Lightning survived a penalty kill of their own minutes early in OT after defenseman Mikhail Sergachev was whistled for holding Tyler Seguin.

After consecutive games with three-goal periods, Tampa Bay has all of the momentum and a 2-1 series lead. Dallas' top line is without a goal against Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay then went ahead in Game 3 with two goals in an 85-second span before three goals in the second period of a 5-2 win. The NHL is playing Stanley Cup Final games on back-to-back nights for the first time since 2009, when Detroit won each of the first two games against Pittsburgh, which eventually won the series in seven games. In its only back-to-back this postseason, Tampa Bay won Games 2 and 3 in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against Boston.

This is a Stanley Cup matchup for all of those who like their games to be a bit defensive. “In today’s NHL you need that for your team to be successful,” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said Friday. “We're not surprised,” Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. ... He’s doing it all right now.”The Stars signed 14-year veteran Andrej Sekera as a free agent last summer, and he is finally in his first Stanley Cup Final with his fifth team. “Everyone is obviously very hungry to go all of the way,” said Hedman, part of Tampa Bay's loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final five years ago.