20/20: Hughes takes over and the gamble pays off as Wild eliminate Stars in Game 6

Plus, was this the end for Jamie Benn?

There won’t be a Game 7.

The Minnesota Wild won Game 6 against the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Thursday night, ending the series and advancing to the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.

Here is the 20/20.

1. This is why Bill Guerin took the gamble.

Back in December, without any guarantee that Quinn Hughes would sign a long-term extension, the Wild general manager pulled the trigger on a deal for the franchise defenseman.

While other franchises balked at the deal without an extension in place, the Wild were willing to take the risk.

Four months later, the Wild are headed to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2015, powered by two-goal performance by Hughes in Game 6.

2. On the opposite side the Stars, after three straight trips to the Western Conference Final, are headed home after Round 1.

It’s the harsh reality of the playoff format, these teams never should have met in the first round, but it’s even the harsher reality of Dallas’ inability to generate much of anything at even strength or adjust within the series.

The Wild were ready and adapted, the sat the Stars breakouts and disrupted them, the Stars never adjusted, and the eventual series-clinching goal came on a sequence after the Stars failed to breakout of their own zone.