DALLAS -- An unfamiliar feeling for the Minnesota Wild came at the expense of an all-too-familiar experience for Jake Oettinger and the Dallas Stars.
The Wild's 6-1 win Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals was the first time they've won a playoff game since April 17, 2023, when they beat, you guessed it, the Stars.
Even that loss from three years ago is part of a much larger pattern for the Stars. Losing this Game 1 in front of their fans at the American Airlines Center marked the ninth time in their past 11 playoff series that they've fallen in the opening contest.
Dallas' Game 1 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche by four goals in last year's quarterfinal round extended its streak to eight straight Game 1 losses. The Stars snapped that streak with a semifinal round win against the Winnipeg Jets and won a second Game 1 in a row in the Western Conference finals vs. the Edmonton Oilers.
But a year later, here they are, right back in a 1-0 series hole.
"It's a long series, it's a best-of-seven and it's one game," Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said when asked about his team's Game 1 struggles. "We have to be better than that, but there's a good chance to win this one still. It's just one game, but we have to be better. We have to move on and get back to it."
The Stars' latest loss started when Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy executed a series of tic-tac-toe passes on the Wild's first power play that led to an open Joel Eriksson Ek beating Oettinger from the low slot for a 1-0 lead with 15:35 remaining in the first. Eriksson Ek's opening salvo was the first of four unanswered goals, three of which came in the second period.
Oettinger allowing four goals in not even two full periods raised the question if he could be pulled again after what happened last season. In the 2025 Western Conference finals, he allowed two goals on Edmonton's first two shots in a Game 5 loss. The fallout from the ensuing decision to pull Oettinger -- along with Dallas' loss in the conference finals for a third straight year -- contributed to the Stars firing former coach Peter DeBoer and hiring Glen Gulutzan, an Oilers assistant.
Advancing to three consecutive conference finals reinforced that the Stars are in a championship window now. But that also generated its share of questions, with Oettinger's performances being among them.
"I think the last goal was bad, but I think I did good things and I think there are things I could have been better at," Oettinger said.
Gulutzan said he never considered pulling Oettinger after the Wild went up 4-0.
"Nothing for me was on our goaltending," Gulutzan said. "For me, it was certainly on our specialty teams needing to be better, and our 5-on-5 play wasn't good enough."
The Stars cut the lead to 4-1 with less than five minutes left in the second period when Jason Robertson scored on the extra-skater advantage. Robertson's goal was the first moment since the opening puck drop to elicit an audible noise beyond groans from the Dallas fans.
Those groans would eventually return when the Stars wasted chances such as when Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen were on a 2-on-1 only for Johnston to hold on to the puck and fire a shot wide of Wild rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt with 2:44 left. Wallstedt finished the win with 27 saves.
"We didn't get our forecheck rolling that's for sure," Rantanen said. "That's why they were quickly getting pucks out of their [defensive] zone, and we only started to that basically in the third and at the end of the second period. That's definitely one thing; we want to make them defend more because they were kind of on us for sure for most of the second period."
The Stars' anemic Game 1 prompted familiar questions about their offense in the playoffs. The Stars scored five times in their final four games -- all losses -- against the Oilers last spring.
Did Gulutzan see anything about his team's offensive struggles in Game 1 that reminded him of last year's conference finals?
"It's quite simple ... you're not going anywhere if you're not going to get your nose over the puck and win some battles," Gulutzan said. "And when there's lots of energy out there on the ice, and you're on the wrong end of those, bad things happen and it just spiraled on us a little bit."
The series resumes Monday with a Game 2 that will see either the Wild come a step closer toward winning their first playoff series since 2015 or the Stars draw level before heading to St. Paul, Minnesota, for Games 3 and 4.
Of the previous eight series in which the Stars dropped Game 1, they rallied to win six of those series and advance to the next round.
Heiskanen, Oettinger and Rantanen all talked about how the Stars can draw from their past experiences of coming from behind. But Dallas has also seen how one defeat can snowball into losing a series.
"I think all the guys understand urgency," Gulutzan said. "This is a veteran group. They understand urgency."