Article content continued

“We threw the kitchen sink at them,” Haula said.

Game 4 is in Minnesota on Wednesday night, and Game 5 will be back in Dallas on Friday night.

“It could be a heck of a series. The parity in this league is incredible, and if you don’t play well you’re not going to win,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.

Sharp scored 26 seconds into the game and again less than 4 minutes later for the Stars, but the Wild controlled the action after that and finished with a 25-17 shots-on-goal advantage.

The Stars went nearly 50 minutes without scoring until the puck took a pinball-like path to the net off Colton Sceviour with 6:15 remaining to cut the lead to 4-3.

“They played with a lot of speed and scored some timely goals,” Sharp said. “You could tell that they fed off the energy of their fans. It was a fun game to be a part of, so we’ll take what we can as far as positives from this game.”

Sharp was uncovered in the slot when he converted a midair tip of Alex Goligoski’s shot into a crowd-silencing score, with many of the customers not yet settled in their seats. The quiet hung in the arena air when Sharp, the 14-year veteran in his first season with the Stars, turned a breakaway into a 2-0 lead with his low shot that slipped under goalie Devan Dubnyk’s glove.

In 18 career post-season games against Minnesota, Sharp has nine goals and eight assists. The Wild needed a few minutes to recover, but by the second half of the first period they were in clear control.