MINNEAPOLIS — The Wild and Stars used to be distant neighbors in the Central Division.
Now, they're side by side.
Dallas continued its ascent, hanging on 6-3 on Sunday afternoon in front of 18,791 at Xcel Energy Center to extend the Wild's plummet with its eighth loss over the past 10 games.
As for the Stars, they've won four in a row and nine of its past 12 to match the Wild's 67 points. The Wild still has the slight edge in the standings, sitting fourth since it's played one less game.
Jason Robertson scored a hat trick for a second straight game, former Blaine and Minnesota Duluth standout Riley Tufte recorded his first NHL goal and Lakeville's Jake Oettinger picked up 34 saves.
For the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov had two goals in the third period.
Despite a lopsided finish, the Wild actually dominated early and opened the scoring 10 minutes, 52 seconds into the first period on a breakaway backhander from Nico Sturm. The goal was Sturm's 17th point, which ties his career high set last season.
But the Wild lost control late in the period.
As Dallas' Tyler Seguin drove to the net during a power play, the puck bounced to Joe Pavelski and he wired it off defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and past a sprawled Kaapo Kahkonen, who was taken down by teammate Frederick Gaudreau as Gaudreau got tied up with Seguin.
The Wild challenged the play for goaltender interference, and video review confirmed Gaudreau impeded Kahkonen.
Not only did the goal count, making it 1-1, but the Stars received a power play for the unsuccessful challenge.
And on the ensuing power play in the second period, Robertson gave the Stars a lead when he pounced on a dropped save by Kahkonen at 1:38.
Only 2:35 later, Tufte also capitalized on a rebound, sweeping the puck by Kahkonen for his first career goal.
By 9:52, Dallas moved ahead by 3 when a Robertson shot trickled through Kahkonen.
The Wild pulled Kahkonen after that; he exited with 17 saves, and Cam Talbot made three stops in relief and spent a chunk of the third period on the bench for an extra attacker.
And that's how the Wild scored its second goal, a 2-on-1 shot from Kaprizov set up by Kevin Fiala with 3:41 remaining. Then Kaprizov registered No. 28 at 18:03, but that's as close as the Wild would get.
Stars captain Jamie Benn flung the puck into the empty net 52 seconds later before Robertson completed his hat trick at 19:28.
The Wild's 17 goals at 6-on-5 lead the NHL.
This game also continued the Wild's special-team struggles.
While the penalty kill went 1-for-3, the power play came up emptyhanded at 0-for-4. The penalty kill has now given up at least a goal in 12 of the last 13 games, a span in which the team has surrendered 16 power play goals.
