DALLAS — Devan Dubnyk stood alone in his crease, his head cranked and shaking in bewilderment, after the most confounding goal of the season was ruled to somehow have beaten him, off the skates of two opponents, over the net and down his back into the goal.
In a game that can be determined by the strange bounces of a rubber puck on a choppy ice surface, the Minnesota Wild were victims of one of the strangest bounces yet Saturday night.
And in a postseason where the most minute of plays can flip a series, the Wild were unable to recover from a weird bounce and a weird call, falling 2-1 to the Dallas Stars to send them back to St. Paul trailing 2-0 in the series.
Perhaps the Wild were outplayed for stretches of Game 2 and perhaps they didn't deserve a win, even if they did play better than in Game 1's 4-0 loss.
But that didn't make it any easier to accept Dallas' first goal.
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"I'm not even going to talk about it," Dubnyk said. "It's embarrassing. It's not even worth the fine to tell you guys what I think about it. It's amazing. It's playoffs."
As the Wild have sawed sticks into dust, failing in a multitude of ways to put the puck in the net, the Stars, the NHL's highest-scoring team, won largely because of the kind of fluky goal that this Minnesota team seems incapable of scoring.
"We've got to find a way to get a gritty goal," interim coach John Torchetti said after his team lost its seventh straight game, a stretch in which it has scored just seven goals.
On a play started by Antoine Roussel, the Wild were unable to quickly exit their zone and Marco Scandella's clearing attempt bounced off first Ales Hemsky's skates, then Roussel's as he tried to kick the puck ahead. Instead, it twirled through the air, arching over the net.
Dubnyk saw the rainbow of the puck, and as it landed on his shoulders, tried to pin it against the crossbar. His effort knocked the net off its moorings, and a whistle followed as the referees blew the play dead: no goal. The Wild had, it seemed, escaped.
"The ref made the right call on the ice," Dubnyk said.
But then a review of the play lasted so long that fans hollered, then grew bored, then hollered some more.
Finally, referee Brad Meier announced the ruling:
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"After video review, it was confirmed that the puck legally entered the net," he said. "We have a good goal."
The fans stood and waved white towels, their team suddenly leading regardless of the circumstances.
"It's not even worth talking about," Dubnyk said. "It's mind-blowing that that's the outcome of that play in the playoffs. Mind-blowing."
Torchetti stood stoically, his arm raised to get the attention of a referee, desperate for an explanation. He asked how he could challenge the ruling.
"He said we reviewed the kick, we reviewed the high stick, we reviewed the net and the whistle," Torchetti said.
The Wild might have had ample reason to gripe, but the call had nothing to do with their offensive struggles.
They are headed home with just a single goal so far in this series against a Dallas team with supposedly suspect defense and goaltending.
The Wild's best chances in Game 2 rarely even yielded shots on goal.
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Mikael Granlund, the center-turned-winger, was the biggest offender.
He led a shorthanded 3-on-1 rush that didn't lead to a shot. He had the best chance of the game, a one-timer with Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen out of position, but the shot sailed a few feet wide.
"I've got to put the puck in the net with those chances," Granlund said.
