The Dallas Stars evened up their series against the Minnesota Wild Wednesday night, exciting the hometown crowd with seven goals (including a four-goal second period). That was possible without one of their best players after Joe Pavelski was knocked out of Game 1 by a massive hit from Matt Dumba. Now, as the series shifts to Minnesota for the next two games, it appears as though they’ll still have to battle without the veteran.
Pavelski will not travel with Dallas, according to team reporter Mike Heika. Head coach Pete DeBoer said he hopes Pavelski can return this series but won’t be involved in the next two games at least.
Though he doesn’t always get the same amount of press as other stars, Pavelski’s performance for Dallas has been incredible. At age 38 this season, he scored 28 goals and 77 points in 82 games, breaking the 1,000-point mark for his career. In fact, with 1,001 in 1,250 games, his career is starting to look more like that of a Hall of Famer, despite rarely getting much attention as one of the league’s best players. He’s never won an individual trophy but has played in 169 career playoff games, already good enough for 56th all time. His 126 postseason points put him 53rd, tied with Maurice Richard.
Despite Wednesday night’s win, that’s a huge piece to pull out of the Dallas lineup for two critical road games.
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