As far as Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno is concerned, the key to regaining control of his team’s first-round playoff series is staying out of the penalty box.

That’s it. Simply keep the same number of players on the ice as the Dallas Stars.

“They’re looking to play 5-on-4,” Marcus Foligno said. “That’s their game. They can’t hang with us 5-on-5. So we’ve just got to be smarter, and myself included.

“But it’s a heated game out there.”

The heat figures to intensify when the Wild face off against the Stars on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals series in Saint Paul, Minn. The series is tied at 1-1 after the Wild took Game 1 and the Stars responded to win Game 2.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan heard about Marcus Foligno’s 5-on-5 comment, but he shrugged it off as Game 3 approached.

“He’s probably emotional or whatever,” Gulutzan said. “I don’t know if we need (bulletin-board material). We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing and grind this thing to where we need it to go.

“Obviously, I don’t agree with it.”

The pace of play increased dramatically in Game 2 as both teams traded high-quality scoring chances. One key difference was that the Wild committed eight penalties totaling 16 minutes, which paved the way for the Stars to capitalize on the power play.

Wild coach John Hynes said he felt better after rewatching film of Game 2. He never likes seeing his team lose, but he said the team’s mistakes were correctable and not a sign of a larger, more foundational problem.

“Going back through it, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Hynes said. “… The thing I love about our group is we’re extremely competitive. Even if you (compare) the two games, I think from a competitive aspect of the game, we were there, we didn’t take a step back in that area.

“I think now it’s just understanding that we have to play with emotion and not (be) emotional. There’s a difference in that. To me, that’s controllable.”

One thing the Wild cannot control is the health of injured forwards Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin. Zuccarello was a late scratch before Game 2 because of an upper-body injury, and Trenin left in the first period Monday after absorbing a crushing check from Stars forward Colin Blackwell.

Hynes said he was not sure whether either forward could play in Game 3. If not, he said, there is a chance that the team could dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of the usual combination of 12 forwards and six defensemen.

“That is something that is on the table,” he said. “But also, you look at 12 and six, and you look at the intensity level of playoff games and things like that, I think you want to take that into consideration as well.”

The Stars’ Jake Oettinger and the Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt likely will start in net for the third straight game of the series. Oettinger is 1-1 with a 3.54 goals-against average and an .879 save percentage in the series, and Wallstedt is 1-1 with a 2.02 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

–Field Level Media

Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo home run and collected three RBIs as the New York Yankees opened a three-game series with a 4-0 road victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.

Stanton’s home run came against Boston starter Connelly Early. It was his third home run of the season. He added a two-run double in the sixth.

Stanton, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Randal Grichuk each had two hits for the Yankees, who had 10 hits in the win. New York has won five of its last six games.

Luis Gil (1-1) pitched into the seventh to earn the win. He exited the mound with one out in the seventh after issuing back-to-back walks to Trevor Story and Ceddanne Rafaela. Brent Headrick came on in relief and stranded both runners.

Gil gave up two hits, struck out two and threw 83 pitches.

The Red Sox have scored three runs or fewer in 12 of their 23 games. Boston has allowed at least four runs in 13 of those 23 contests.

Boston was limited to four hits, a double by Marcelo Mayer and singles by Willson Contreras, Carlos Narvaez and Rafaela.

Early (1-1) was pulled with one out in the sixth. He gave up three runs on five hits and struck out four. He was lifted after he walked three in the sixth.

Stanton’s leadoff home run in the top of the second opened the scoring, and the Yankees added two runs in the sixth. Following walks to Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge, Stanton drove in both runners with a two-run double to center.

It was 4-0 after Cody Bellinger singled in the eighth and scored on Grichuk’s one-out double.

Tuesday’s game was the start of a nine-game, three-city road trip for the Yankees.

–Field Level Media

Limited to just 33 games in the regular season by a series of injuries, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams never really developed much of a rhythm.

However, after his 22-point, seven-rebound, six-assist performance in the Thunder’s 119-84 Game 1 win over the Phoenix Suns in their first-round playoff series, Williams looks as if he is finally returning to form after being a key piece in last season’s championship run.

“He’s been out for so long, we knew it was going to take some time for him to get back to himself,” Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort said. “But he is now. He’s confident, real aggressive.”

The series continues Wednesday when the Thunder and Suns meet in Oklahoma City for Game 2.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said his approach to making adjustments for the second game, after Oklahoma City built a big lead early and then maintained it in on Sunday in the series opener, was an open-minded one.

“We try to look at it more like a menu and less like a prediction,” Daigneault said. “We’re not going to try to guess. You don’t know what they’re going to do.

“There’s a lot of different directions they could go in. We try to understand what all those directions are — could be different lineups, it could be different tactics, could just be the same ones and try to execute them better. We try to account for all that, just make sure our team has contingencies.”

Among the improvements Phoenix coach Jordan Ott said his team must make in Game 2 is to avoid being in isolation against the Thunder’s defense.

While the Suns’ Dillon Brooks said the approach was a good one overall, he also said he wouldn’t avoid such matchups against fellow Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“He’s a good defender overall, but I just like the matchup,” Brooks said. “Team Canada, we’ve been going at it for a while. I won’t forget our one-on-ones that we had in Paris. … You see a guy like that going hard on the offensive end all game and trying to get a rest on defense, I’ll find a way to make him use his legs, use his hands, use his mind on that defensive end.”

Brooks had 18 points on 6-of-22 shooting in Game 1, while Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points but hit just 5 of 18 from the field.

Ott said Brooks has been one of the tone-setters for the Suns, not only through the season but in the play-in tournament and now the playoffs as well.

“That edge we talk about is super impactful for our culture and environment since Day 1,” Ott said. “He’s been in these playoff battles. Knows that it’s a series. You gotta play with that edge. It helped us get going.”

Phoenix’s Grayson Allen (hamstring) has missed the last four games, though he was listed as available for the last two. Allen went through some drills after practice on Tuesday and appears close to a return. He was listed as questionable on the injury report.

Suns center Mark Williams, who missed the past two games with a foot injury, was wearing a soft boot at practice while Jordan Goodwin, who left Game 1 with a calf injury, was wearing a black sleeve on his left leg. Both are also considered questionable.

–Field Level Media