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Chicago sneaks in the playoffs through the back door, Dallas loses 5-3 to Minnesota

Greg Zanon, Brenden Morrow, Jose Theodore

Minnesota Wild defenseman Greg Zanon, center, and Dallas Stars left wing Brenden Morrow (10) watch as Wild goalie Jose Theodore (60) deflects a shot during the first period of an NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minn., Sunday, April 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

AP

On a day when both Dallas and Chicago needed to come up big, both teams came up incredibly small and for Chicago that means they get to live another day and defend their Stanley Cup championship. Minnesota beat Dallas 5-3 tonight thanks to Antti Miettinen’s go-ahead goal in the third period as the teams traded goals all night long. Jose Theodore stood taller than Kari Lehtonen and the Wild sent Dallas packing for the summer.

For Minnesota, their only motivation in this game was to prevent the Stars from making the postseason and their effort paid off as they frustrated the Stars most of the night. It wasn’t the Wild’s top players getting it done tonight. Instead it was role players like Brad Staubitz, Colton Gillies, and Jared Spurgeon all scoring big goals. Pierre-Marc Bouchard added the empty net goal to cinch the game for Minnesota and crush the Stars’ postseason dreams. For longtime Minnesota hockey fans, being able to knock out the team that once called Minnesota home before they were moved to Dallas payback is indeed sweet.

For Chicago, their reward is the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first round date with Vancouver. Chicago has knocked Vancouver out of the playoffs the last two seasons and while this Canucks team is more of a machine and not the psychologically fragile team we’ve seen in the past, you know damn well it’ll be in their minds that they’ll have to exorcise the demons of playoffs past if they want to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

Dallas now heads into an offseason which sees their top point producer Brad Richards becoming an unrestricted free agent. Unless Dallas’ ownership situation gets settled by July 1, it seems apparent that Richards will be playing in a different uniform next season and for the seasons to come. As the best free agent on the market, he’ll get a long term offer for big money and with the NHL salary cap reportedly heading up to over $62 million, there’ll be plenty of suitors for Richards.