Stars’ Nils Lundkvist to miss Game 5 after taking skate to face
Dallas Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist will miss Game 5 of his team’s first-round series against the Minnesota Wild, according to Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine.
Lundkvist had to leave Saturday’s Game 4 after taking a skate to the face from Wild forward Michael McCarron as both players reached for a loose puck in front of the Dallas goal, suffering an apparent severe laceration as a result of the play.
Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters that he still expects Lundkvist back at some point in the series, and that a replacement for Lundkvist for Tuesday night’s Game 5 will be determined the day of the game.
Lundkvist takes a skate to the face
Among the options available to Gulutzan and his staff to step in on the blue line are Alexander Petrovic and Ilya Lyubushkin.
Lundkvist, who was chosen with the No. 28 overall pick in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers, is in his fourth season as a member of the Stars.
The Swede put up 11 points on 3 goals and 8 assists this season in 52 regular season games played while skating to a plus-12 rating on an average of 16:29 of time on ice per game.
The Pitea native recorded two assists on home ice in Game 2, a 4-2 win for Dallas that evened the series at a game apiece after a 6-1 loss in the opener.
Game 4 went to the Wild thanks to an overtime goal from winger Matthew Boldy, which tied the series at two games apiece after the Stars emerged victorious on the road in Game 3 to take the lead.
The winner of this series, which features two of the top seven teams in the league-wide standings, will officially take on the Colorado Avalanche in the second round after the Central Division champion completed a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Kings in their own first-round series.