ST. PAUL, Minn. — The impact of Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason and the Stars’ willingness to dive failed to have the desired result.
Informed of Evason’s observation, coach Pete DeBoer responded with a hearty laugh.
“There’s a hockey term for that. It’s called deflection,” said DeBoer, an attorney in Canada. “You know what, hey if I were coaching one of the most penalized teams in the league, I’d probably be doing the same thing. That’s good coaching.”
Evason’s accusation came after the Stars went 3-of-6 on the power play in a 7-3 Stars’ victory Wednesday.
“We felt that they had some bigger people probably go down pretty easy in that hockey game,” Evason told Minnesota reporters Thursday. “We’ve talked about this before, and it’s a fine line because we don’t dive. Our team, the Minnesota Wild, don’t dive. There’s so many times I would love to go in there and go, ‘You know what guys, let’s embellish.’ I mean, you want to draw penalties because of how hard you’re working and how gritty you are and whatever.”
Road warriors: The Stars were the second-best road team in the Central Division at 25-11-4 and DeBoer sees what he hopes is a carryover in the playoffs.
“I’ve liked our road game all year,” DeBoer said. “I think we’ve got a pretty unflappable group we brought, we’ve gotten to our game quickly. We’ve managed those momentum swings. And you know, we’ve got rewarded with our record this year on the road.”
Twitter: @ChuckCarltonDMN
