Mats Zuccarello and the Minnesota Wild are now in the position that they try to be in every season in the NHL playoffs. Things feel a bit different now, with the Wild going home for Game 6 on Thursday night with a chance to eliminate the Dallas Stars and advance to the second round for the first time since 2015.

For Minnesota sports fans, it doesn’t get much better than Thursday night. Two cities. Two Game 6s. Two opportunities to advance to the conference semifinals. It’s got a chance to be an all-time Minnesota sports night — or one that sets up an even sweatier day of Game 7s on Saturday.

The Minnesota Wild walked out of last night’s game with a loss, but not with their season hanging by a thread. A series can shift quickly in the playoffs, and this one still has plenty of hockey left to play.

KSTP Sports was at the Wild's optional Wednesday morning skate and spoke with coach John Hynes and forward Marcus Johansson. The Wild host Dallas Wednesday night in Game 3, with the series tied at 1.

After a slow start to the third period, the Wild scored a huge insurance goal. McCarron, set up by Yakov Trenin and Vladimir Tarasenko, found a path to the net and slid the puck through Oettinger’s five hole for his second goal of the series. About a minute later, the Wild delivered another huge penalty kill to keep it at 3-1.

Look, it's hard to find any joy when the Minnesota Wild just suffered an overtime loss in Game 3 to hand the Dallas Stars a 2-1 series lead and now we're thinking really bad thoughts about another first-round exit.