Johnston and Stars beat Wild 4-2 in Game 2 to even their first-round playoff series

DALLAS (AP) — Wyatt Johnston scored goals on a ricochet and a roller, Matt Duchene had a tiebreaking power-play goal and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 in Game 2 on Monday night to even their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

The Stars went ahead to stay with a power play winding down about four minutes into the penalty-filled second period when Duchene made a quick pass to Mikko Rantanen and then got the puck back just in front of the crease. That made it 2-1 in the kind of physical game expected between the Central Division rivals.

Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 28 shots, including a point-blank attempt by Kirill Kaprizov with 2 1/2 minutes to play when the Wild were on a power play after Dallas was penalized for too many men on the ice.

Brock Faber scored his first two playoff goals and Quinn Hughes had two assists for Minnesota, which won the opener 6-1 on Saturday but missed a chance in its 15th playoff appearance to take a 2-0 series lead for the first time.

“From our end anyway, it was a playoff game. I thought they played two, we played one,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “So it’s more of what we look like, more of the way we are, but you can still see how tight it is.”

Jason Robertson, who like Johnston had 45 goals in the regular season, also scored for Dallas. Nils Lundkvist had two assists.

“It was good just to show each other what we can do, and not get kind of pushed out of the series,” said Robertson, who has scored in both games. “We’re going to try to ride the momentum into Game 3.”

The series shifts to Minnesota on Wednesday night.

Johnston, the 22-year-old center already in his fourth postseason and 58th playoff game, put Dallas up 1-0 midway through the first on his shot that ricocheted off the boards behind the net and then went off the left skate of goalie Jesper Wallstedt and just inside the post. Lundkvist got the primary assist for pushing the puck with his skate back to Johnston.

“Guess you try to hit the net," Johnston said. “Good things happen when you do that.”

The Stars were on another power play in the final minute when Johnston — from a crowd in front of Oettinger — knocked the puck to the other end, with it rolling and swerving just inside the right post of an empty net.

Wallstedt, the rookie who has started both games ahead of playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, also had 28 saves.

“He was solid through the whole game,” Wild coach John Hynes said.

Right after Duchene and Rantanen combined on the power-play goal, another scuffle broke out in the corner and both of them ended up in the penalty box. That gave Minnesota a man advantage, though Oettinger kept Dallas ahead with a glove save on a shot by Boldy during the ensuring power play. Minnesota finished 0 for 4 on the power play.

“A hard-fought game by both teams,” Hynes said. “Obviously a tight-checking, hard-fought game by both teams, and you know, we won the first one, they won the second one.”

The second period ended right after Marcus Foligno got a double minor for roughing, when he basically put interfering Thomas Harley in a headlock and took him down to the ice near the boards.

Already without forward Mats Zuccarello because of an upper-body injury after he had three assists in the series opener, when he took an elbow, the Wild lost another forward. Yakov Trenin took a crushing blow at center ice from Colin Blackwell late in the first period. After staying face-down on the ice momentarily, he was helped off and never returned.

Hynes said only that Trenin had an upper-body injury.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) keeps his eyes on an airborne puck as Minnesota Wild's Kirill Kaprizov (97) pressures the net in the second period of Game 2 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series Monday, April 20, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)un

Dallas Stars' Matt Duchene (95) and Wyatt Johnston (53) skate to the bench after Duchene scored as officials hold Minnesota Wild's Joel Eriksson Ek (14) after a fight broke out following the score in the second period of Game 2 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series Monday, April 20, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)un

Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars players are separated by officials after scuffles broke out following an injury to the Wild's Yakov Trenin in the first period of Game 2 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series Monday, April 20, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)un

Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (30) defends against a shot from Dallas Stars' Mikko Rantanen (96) as Jared Spurgeon (46) helps defend in the first period of Game 2 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series Monday, April 20, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)un

Dallas Stars' Colin Blackwell (15), Oskar Bäck (10) and Wyatt Johnston (53) celebratee Johnston's goal in the first period of Game 2 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series against the Minnesota Wild Monday, April 20, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)un

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died. He was 74.

Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson’s home but his credibility came under attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias.

Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs in the past decade, but a recording showed he had done so repeatedly.

Lynn Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, said that Fuhrman died May 12. The county does not release the cause of death as a rule.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and law professor who was a legal strategist on Simpson’s defense “Dream Team,” said Fuhrman was a “much better detective than he was a witness.”

“He’s very smart, and you know, a very, very aggressive detective. Ultimately his actions helped us win the O.J. case because of his use of the ‘n’ word,” Dershowitz said Monday evening. “I got to know him later, after it was all over, and we had a cordial relationship.”

Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal. He subsequently moved to Idaho with his family and set up a 20-acre (eight-hectare) farm, raising chickens, goats, sheep and llamas.

In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury and pleaded no contest. He later became a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings.

A criminal-court jury found Simpson, a former star NFL running back and actor, not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman. He served nine years in prison on unrelated charges and died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in 2024 at the age of 76.

Kato Kaitlin, a friend of Brown who also testified in the murder trial, wrote in a post on X that he wanted to respectfully acknowledge Fuhrman's death and that he hopes Fuhrman's loved ones can find peace.

“While we were never close personally, our lives were indelibly linked through our roles in the O.J. Simpson trial over thirty years ago. It was a deeply complex and painful chapter for everyone involved, but any loss of life is a time for reflection and solemnity,” Kaitlin wrote.

Fuhrman’s father left when he was 7 years old, and Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked. As an adult, he joined the Marines and then the Los Angeles Police Department.

Golden reported from Seattle.

FILE - In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. (AP Photo/Sam Mircovich, Pool, File)

FILE - Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mark Fuhrman, foreground, and Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, rear, crane their heads to look at an overhead monitor during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

FILE - Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman shows the jury in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial evidence during testimony Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, Pool, File)