First off, cheers to our loyal HW reader and commenter, Spookshow, for absolutely nailing it with this comment in yesterday’s Game Preview!
Mikael Granlund was indeed back to normal last night, as he looked unstoppable skating alongside Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise. His short-handed goal to get Minnesota on the board completely turned the game around after Dallas had gotten off to a hot start and taken an early lead. Granlund got the puck in Minnesota’s zone, raced up the ice with Koivu, and fired a confident-looking shot off the far post and in. The goal was very reminiscent of some of the goals he scored at the beginning of March, when his line with Eric Staal and Jason Zucker was perhaps the best in the NHL.