NHL playoffs winners and losers: Stars falter in Game 1 again

The Dallas Stars, despite reaching the conference finals the past three seasons, have a poor record in Game 1s. The effort in their Saturday, April 18 playoff opener was poorer than usual. The Stars were routed 6-1 at home by the Minnesota Wild and find themselves trailing after the first game of the series for the ninth time in their last 11 openers.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said "to a man," the Wild were better than his team, which didn't happen a lot during the regular season. "You can't get your game going if you're not going to win battles," he told reporters. "You can take any metric and if you lose skating battles and puck battles, you're always on the receiving end of everything negative.

" The Stars, under previous coach Peter DeBoer, overcame a 5-1 loss in their 2025 playoff opener to beat the Colorado Avalanche in seven games, so they are far from in trouble. "There's room for growth," Gulutzan said. Here are the winners and losers from the opening night of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs: WINNERS Jesper Wallstedt, Minnesota Wild Coach John Hynes chose the rookie over veteran Filip Gustavsson for Game 1.

Wallstedt made 27 saves for a victory in his first playoff game. In fact, coaches made the right decisions in net in other games. Carolina veteran Frederik Andersen got the start over Brandon Bussi and had a 22-save shutout.