luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

First round 2025-26 · April 21, 2026

No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

Wild at Stars, Game 2, first round 2025-26: who deserved to win?

The Stars beat the Wild 4–2, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Stars win 4 of 10. Luck ran their way: goaltending alone was worth 31 points of win probability to the Stars.

The biggest swing (P3, 18:04 left): A Stars goal came off the board on review (puck over glass), worth 20 points of win probability to the Wild.

Final

Minnesota Wild 2
Dallas Stars 4

April 21, 2026 · American Airlines Center

Luck index +56 Stars lucky · −56 Wild

Each team’s own shots from this game, resampled into new games 4,000 times, each a goal at its chance, with the power plays the penalties gave and the pulled goalie at the end: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Wild win 6, Stars win 4.

  1. 1 MIN 5 DAL 0
  2. 2 MIN 5 DAL 2
  3. 3 MIN 6 DAL 3
  4. 4 MIN 6 DAL 4
  5. 5 MIN 2 DAL 1
  6. 6 MIN 4 DAL 3
  7. 7 MIN 4 DAL 5
  8. 8 MIN 4 DAL 5
  9. 9 MIN 3 DAL 6
  10. 10 MIN 2 DAL 6

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

No closing line for this game.

Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.

Every shot redrawn at its chance, overtime and the shootout replayed as near coin flips; the shots themselves and every call fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 3,999.8 replays ended

Wild win 56% of them, Stars 44%. The line is what actually happened: Stars by 2.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Wild by 3+25.0%
Wild by 210.5%
Wild by 120.4%
Stars by 119.4%
Stars by 28.9%
Stars by 3+15.8%

Where the luck was

What the luck was worth

Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A post hit in a blowout counts for nothing; the same post with a minute left in a tie game can be most of a win.

Swings add up across a game, so in one that went back and forth they can pass 100%. On the scoreboard the same luck was worth +1.4 goals to the Stars: the final margin was Stars by 2, without the luck Stars by 0.6. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Wild4323.47−1.47
Stars4632.94+0.06

Regulation with both goalies in. Expected goals: our model of each shot’s chance from where and how it was taken (distance, angle, shot type, rebound, rush, strength), adjusted for the shooter’s and the goalie’s records. A team above expected finished better or met a weaker night in goal; 75% of the gap counts as luck (why that share).

Calls

Every penalty that put a team on the power play, and every goal taken off the board on review, with what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment. Calls don’t count toward luck by default: who draws penalties repeats from game to game like a skill (how calls are valued). Switch them on below.

WhenCallWin probability for
P1 15:43 High sticking on the Stars (Mikko Rantanen): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MIN
P2 17:44 Elbowing on the Wild (Nick Foligno): 2 minutes on the power play +4% DAL
P2 15:58 Slashing on the Stars (Mikko Rantanen): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MIN
P2 13:43 Tripping on the Wild (Jared Spurgeon): 2 minutes on the power play +4% DAL
P2 12:15 Tripping on the Stars (Miro Heiskanen): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MIN
P2 0:03 Roughing on the Wild (Marcus Foligno): 2 minutes on the power play +5% DAL
P3 18:04 A Stars goal came off the board on review (puck over glass) +20% MIN
P3 3:44 Too many men on the ice on the Stars (DAL): 2 minutes on the power play +6% MIN
P3 1:21 Too many men on the ice on the Wild (MIN): 2 minutes on the power play +6% DAL
P3 0:14 Slashing on the Wild (Ryan Hartman): 2 minutes on the power play 0% DAL

When it happened

Stars’ chance of winning

Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

Our in-game win probability: the score and the time left, starting from the betting line (or the home edge alone when there is none), with goals at the league’s rates for the score. Overtime is drawn at a fixed width. Shaded above the middle while the Stars were ahead in it, below while the Wild were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 19:08 Vladimir Tarasenko’s snap shot from 8 feet was savedShooting · 24% chanceVladimir Tarasenko missed the net with a wrist shot from 7 feetShooting · 19% chance +7% DAL –
2 P1 11:02 Wyatt Johnston scored on a slap shot from 52 feetShooting · 2% chance +16% DAL –
3 P1 8:27 Brock Faber scored on a wrist shot from 13 feetShooting · 17% chance +14% MIN –
4 P2 15:58 Matt Duchene scored on a snap shot from 12 feetShooting · 26% chanceSlashing on the Stars (Mikko Rantanen): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +10% DAL –
5 P3 18:04 A Stars goal came off the board on review (puck over glass)Overturned goals +20% MIN –
6 P3 12:51 Jason Robertson scored on a tip from 17 feetShooting · 9% chance +13% DAL –
7 P3 10:13 Brock Faber scored on a snap shot from 35 feetShooting · 10% chance +12% MIN –
8 P3 2:31 Kirill Kaprizov’s between-the-legs shot from 7 feet was savedShooting · 36% chance +15% DAL –

Adjust the assumptions

Think finishing is more skill than we do, or that the calls were luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Wild 34% · Stars 66%

Final margin
Stars by 2
Luck in goals
1.4 for the Stars
Luck-adjusted margin
Stars by 0.6
Replay with same day's form
Wild 56% · Stars 44% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts
Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a goal becomes a save, a post goes in, a penalty goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play from the NHL via fastRhockey; expected goals, in-game win probability and the replays are our own models, fitted on every game since 2018-19 (methodology and validation). Blocked shots aren’t replayed (their location is the block’s, not the shot’s). No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

All first round 2025-26 games · Wild · Stars

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