At 12:54 a.m. Central time, and 12:10 of double overtime, the Dallas Stars won a game they tried multiple times to lose.

In Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against Minnesota, forward Wyatt Johnston tipped in a point shot from defenseman Miro Heiskanen for the game-winning goal as the Stars defeated the Wild 4-3 in double overtime.

“Sorry to keep you guys up,” Johnston quipped in the postgame interview to TBS.

Forgiven.

The Stars have won consecutive games to lead the series 2-1. Game 4 is Saturday afternoon in Minnesota.

Just in case you don’t have your NHL playoff stats handy, teams that take a 2-1 lead in a series go on to win it at a 70 percent clip.

Whereas Game 2 was a physical, choppy and ugly game that looked to be beginning of a nasty series, Game 3 was a special teams party, as the referees liberally called penalty after penalty. A total of 17 penalties were called, creating an uneven game that is far more typical of a date in February than late April.

It created the rare special teams-heavy playoff game.

The Stars’ penalty kill stopped six of seven Wild power plays.

The Stars’ power play scored three goals in eight attempts.

There is more to it than those stats, but there is the game.

Stanley Cup playoffs seldom feature this many power-play opportunities; ironically, the Stars were better even on a night that included a skid where they were awful.

The Stars’ power play put the team in a situation where it looked like they may lose the game. In the second period, they were handed nearly six minutes of power-play time, including a 40-second stretch of 5-on-3.

They didn’t score at all, which helped allow Minnesota to rally from a 2-0 first-period deficit to come back and take a 3-2 lead.

The adage in hockey is if the team that has a long 5-on-3 does not score, it usually loses.

The Stars came back to tie the game midway through the third period when forward Mikko Rantanen patiently waited on a power play to create a good look that Matt Duchene converted. Rantanen scored the game’s first goal, and still appears to be less than 100 percent as he came back late in the season from an injury he sustained in the Olympics.

This series started with Minnesota outplaying the Stars in every facet of the game to the point where it looked like the Stars would be lucky to push this to five or six games. Since that Game 1 blowout, the series has been uneven, but Dallas has been the better team.

Mac Engel

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7760

Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality. Support my work with a digital subscription