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Stars Miss Playoffs With 5-3 Loss To Wild

Despite a miserable stretch in March, the Dallas Stars had battled back to control their destiny on the afternoon of the last day of the season. They only needed a win against the lottery bound Minnesota Wild, who had lost five of their last six at home, to qualify for the playoffs.

Mission Failed. After a bouncing back from a 1-0 deficit to lead 2-1 after a period, the Stars were overwhelmed in the second by a more aggressive Wild club who had nothing to play for. The Wild scored twice to take the lead and saw the game tied on a Brenden Morrow goal just before the second intermission.

Dallas took the ice in the third period knowing that they had 20-25 minutes to save their season and had the better of play, but Anti Miettinen’s slam dunk gave Minnesota a lead that they would not surrender at the 6:47 mark. With Kari Lehtonen on the bench for an extra attacker, Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored into an empty net with 13 seconds remaining to ice the game and effectively end the Stars’ season.

As a result of the Stars’ loss, the Blackhawks won the eighth seed in the West and will face the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.