The Minnesota Wild stayed alive with a 5-4 overtime victory against the Dallas Stars in Game 5 Friday night.
The Wild got off to a hot start scoring twice in the opening 5:16 of the first period; but the Stars offense roared back, scoring three time in the third period, including a pair 28 seconds apart to put themselves in solid position to finish Minnesota off. But after coming into Game 5 with one goal in his last 12 games, captain Mikko Koivu stepped up.
With 3:09 left in the third period, Koivu took a neat Mikael Granlund pass from behind the Dallas net and beat Antti Niemi to tie the game and force overtime. In the extra period, the captain found some space in front of the Stars net and tipped home a Ryan Suter shot to keep the Wild’s hopes alive.

Minnesota will now head home for Game 6 on Sunday afternoon and look to stave off elimination for a second straight game. The Stars will again look to advance out of Round 1 for the first time since 2008.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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