DALLAS — Brock Faber sat down in his dressing room stall and took a deep breath.
This was about 20 minutes after the former Gophers captain delivered the biggest goal of his young NHL career Friday. The overtime winner to beat the Stars 3-2 at American Airlines Center wrapped up Minnesota’s improbable third-period comeback from two goals down. Both Faber’s highlight-reel wraparound and the ensuing celebration will long live in Wild lore, especially if this season turns into a special one.
Faber was asked if this was his favorite all-time goal. He smiled.
“Oh yeah, I think it’s up there, for sure,” Faber said. “I don’t have many goals — overtime goals, at least.”
Then Faber flashed each of his 10 fingers.
“I can count on my hands how many (goals) I had in college,” he said.
BROCK FABER. WRAP AROUND. OT WINNER. pic.twitter.com/OlVffBqs6k
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 28, 2024
You can maybe count on one hand how many regular-season games that stick fresh in a team’s mind after each season. They tend to blend together in the grind of an 82-game slate.
This one, however, might be the best — or most impressive — victory of the Wild’s surprising first half of the season. It’s one they’ll likely look back on if the two teams face each other in the playoffs, like they did two years ago.
Consider everything:
• They were playing without four regulars, including their engine and Hart Trophy candidate, Kirill Kaprizov. The Russian superstar didn’t make the trip due to a lower-body injury.
• They had a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call and 7:30 a.m. flight for the rare show-and-go game that typically occurs after the holiday break.
• They entered 0-13-2 in their last 15 games against the top three teams in the Central Division (Winnipeg, Dallas and Colorado), with this building being its own house of horrors. This was Minnesota’s first regular-season win here since a 6-5 shootout in 2022.
“There hasn’t been a lot of smiles in this barn lately the last three seasons,” Marcus Foligno said.
There were plenty to go around late Friday night.
This one didn’t look good for the first 40 minutes. It had shutout loss written all over it. The Stars held a 32-12 shot-attempt advantage after the first period and a 2-0 lead after two. Raise your hand if you turned off your TV by then. Nobody would have blamed you. The Wild were a bit flat-footed, their forecheck non-existent. Had it not been for the stellar play of goalie Filip Gustavsson, the game could have been out of hand in a hurry.
“Gus saved us a few times,” defenseman Jonas Brodin said.
The Stars went up 2-0 with five minutes left in the second on a snap shot by Wyatt Johnston, another goal off the rush. But instead of caving, the Wild started to find their legs. Their last shift of the period, by the third line of Foligno, Marat Khusnutdinov and Yakov Trenin, provided a boost.
Trenin, with a great look, hit the side of the net with a shot. Then Foligno hit the post. They were recovering pucks, sticking with it, going to the net.
“More of the recipe we need,” coach John Hynes said.
Some players spoke up at second intermission. The message?
Be positive. Stay with it.
“It’s going to come,” Brodin said.
“The bottom line, you can look at it — it’s just two shots,” Faber said. “That’s all it is.”
Inspiration can come from unexpected places.
And for the Wild on Friday, it was the penalty kill. The unit has been pretty darn bad for most of the season, entering the game 30th in the league. But the PK was a catalyst Friday. It went 3-for-3, including a key kill five minutes into the third after a Matt Boldy tripping penalty. If the Wild give up a goal there, it’s probably game over.
But Minnesota gave up just two total shots while short-handed. The PK was more connected. It had active sticks. It was aggressive.
“I thought that was the difference in the game,” Hynes said.
“It’s all about confidence,” Faber said. “You can look at the standings and where you’re at in the PK percentage. But to start every (game), you’re 1-for-1 or 0-for-1. Take it one kill at a time.”
With most of the Wild’s top nine — not named Kaprizov — in a lengthy scoring drought, the blue line picked up the slack in Friday’s comeback. Captain Jared Spurgeon was a beast with three blocks in nearly 22 minutes of ice time, plus an assist on the tying goal. Midway through the third, Brodin noticed three Stars players were forechecking deep in the Wild zone, so he thought it was a good time to pinch. Mats Zuccarello found him with a slick cross-zone pass of the rush, and Brodin scored his first goal since Nov. 19.
“Jimmy gave us life,” Foligno said.
“Sometimes, momentum, you don’t see it on the scoreboard, but players can feel the energy,” Freddy Gaudreau said. “I think we stuck with it. When you do that and you’re focused, no matter what the scoreboard is, you build glimpses of momentum here and there. You get your bounce and that shows up on the scoreboard.”
Fifty-seven seconds after Brodin’s goal, the game was tied. Spurgeon fired a slap shot from the point and Foligno — positioned in the slot — leaped into the air in a screen. The puck went off the inside of his leg and beat Jake Oettinger.
y’all see that??? pic.twitter.com/gPsk3UlTlG
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 28, 2024
“I told the defense, ‘That’s it, I’m always there, hit it off my legs and go top shelf,’” Foligno said with a smile. “It’s not that hard.”
He laughed.
“No, it’s hard. I think it blew wind past my shin pads. Great shot by (Spurgeon).”
Just forcing overtime would have been galvanizing enough. A strong road point at the end of a long day. When you’ve lost four of the last five, you’ll take anything. But the Wild finished this off quickly in overtime, just 35 seconds in. Marco Rossi won the faceoff and the Stars never touched the puck.
“We pissed it away,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said.
It was fitting that three members of the Wild’s young core — Faber, Boldy and Rossi — combined for the game winner. Boldy entered the zone and curled back. He saw Faber trailing with some speed up the middle.
Faber deked around Johnston in the slot and darted around the right side of the net, pulling a sprawling Oettinger with him.
“It was kind of weird, I didn’t think I’d have as much time as I did,” Faber said. “I don’t know. My head was down the whole way, so I’m thankful Oettinger fell for it on the strongside post.”
Faber appeared to nearly trip as Oettinger stuck his stick out, but the Wild defenseman got around the cage and slipped the puck into an empty net.
“Unreal play,” Foligno said. “Fabes came flying down the middle. He’s so shifty and undercover shifty — a lot of people don’t give him credit for how good he is laterally. Even going around the corner, some guys fall on that, get tripped up. He’s able to stay on his feet and put up a highlight-reel goal.”
Said Gaudreau: “Spectacular.”
“I don’t think I’ve done a wraparound goal in my life,” quipped Brodin.
Hynes declined to put any big-picture pressure — or meaning — to this game. He took the micro perspective, that it was an opportunity to tackle another challenge and get points when they’ve been struggling. But Hynes did admit that this kind of resilience is exactly what you look for from a team. As Foligno put it, “A great character win.”
“It shows that when we play to our system and play the game we want to play, we can beat everyone,” Faber said. “We’re confident in that.”
(Photo: Tim Heitman / Imagn Images)
