It’s come down to a best-of-three in the Western Conference first-round series between the No. 2 seed Dallas Stars and the No. 3 Minnesota Wild with Game 5 set for Tuesday night in Dallas.

The teams split Games 1 and 2 in Dallas and then alternated overtime wins in Games 3 and 4 in Minnesota to set up a pivotal Game 5.

“It’s home ice, best-of-three,” said Stars forward Mikko Rantanen, who had two assists in Game 4. “This group has been in this situation before, so we’re pretty familiar.”

Dallas was on the verge of coming home with a commanding 3-1 series lead, but Marcus Foligno tied Game 4 at 14:40 of the third period, then Matt Boldy won it on a deflection with 29 seconds remaining in overtime.

“There’s a lot of belief in here,” Foligno said after the win. “These are two unreal teams, and we’ve got to understand they’re a heck of a hockey club, and it’s going to take this type of effort every night against this squad. … We took a lot of positives out of (a 4-3 double overtime loss in Game 3), and we got rewarded tonight.”

After compiling a career-high 42 goals and 85 points in his fourth NHL season, Boldy has five points (three goals, two assists) in the series and got to the right place at the right time to tip Jared Spurgeon’s shot past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger to end Game 4.

“He’s a tenacious competitor,” Wild coach John Hynes said after Game 4. “He just continues to do the right things. He continues to play, he continues to push. Plays through whatever the circumstances are and got a huge goal for us.”

Brock Faber had a goal and an assist and Jesper Wallstedt made 43 saves (including nine in overtime) for the Wild. He has a 2.06 goals-against-average in the series and a .929 save percentage. Faber has three goals in the series, becoming the first defenseman in franchise history to do so.

“We just keep fighting, keep getting pucks to the net,” Wallstedt said. “We keep playing, and we never give up.”

Minnesota forward Mats Zuccarello, who has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury sustained in Game 1, practiced with the team Monday.

Jason Robertson scored in his fourth straight game for the Stars and has goals in six consecutive contests against the Wild going back to the regular season. Miro Heiskanen also scored for Dallas and Oettinger made 40 saves.

Both Dallas goals came on its power play, which has scored eight goals in 19 chances during the series. The Wild are 3-for-19 with the man advantage and have just one goal in their past 15 opportunities.

However, Minnesota has registered 11 even-strength goals to just three for Dallas.

“It’s almost the blue paint wars,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “If you get there and find some pucks and win some battles . . . it’s really hand-to-hand combat in the blue paint for both sides.”

Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist was ruled out of Game 5 on Monday after leaving Game 4 with a facial cut from the skate of Wild forward Michael McCarron in the second period.

–Field Level Media

Unseeded Austrian Anastasia Potapova surprised No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and won a 7-6 (8), 6-4 battle in the Round of 16 at the Madrid Open on Monday.

Two of the top three seeds were shown the exit door, as Czech 13th seed Linda Noskova defeated No. 3 seed Coco Gauff 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5). Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus survived a tough test from No. 14 Naomi Osaka of Japan but advanced in three sets.

Potapova’s victory took one hour and 53 minutes and finished just after midnight local time. In the field as a lucky loser, she is now set to play a WTA 1000 quarterfinal match for just the fourth time.

Rybakina turned a 2-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead in the first set, but Potapova rallied to tie it at 5-5 and 6-6. The pair traded one-point leads in a tightly contested tiebreaker before Potapova won it on her third set point.

Potapova then trailed Rybakina 4-2 in the second set before she ripped off the final four games in a row. She ended the match having saved 7 of 10 break points and having won 75.5% of her first-service points (37 of 49).

Gauff, meanwhile, squandered a 4-1 lead in the third set and let Noskova move in front 6-5 before forcing a tiebreaker. There, Gauff led a 4-2 lead slip away.

Noskova hit eight aces with seven double faults, while Gauff fired 13 aces and committed six double faults. Gauff also saved 7 of 10 break points, but it was not to be.

“I know the match is not over until it’s over,” Noskova told reporters. “I was kind of saying to myself that I’m still close … even though it’s 1-4. I just wanted to find my rhythm and my game all over again.”

Sabalenka found herself a set and a break down when Osaka broke her serve in the third game of the second. Osaka won a marathon sixth game to tie it 3-3, but from there Sabalenka took nine of the last 11 games of the match, prevailing 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2.

“Oh my God, that was incredible level,” Sabalenka said after improving to 2-1 all-time against Osaka, the four-time major champ. “She played incredible tennis. I feel like I just got lucky in a couple shots in the third set, that’s why it went that fast.”

Sabalenka became the sixth woman to reach 150 match wins at WTA 1000 tournaments.

Her next opponent is 30th seed Hailey Baptiste, who reached her second WTA 1000 quarterfinal by enduring a second-set marathon to beat No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-1, 6-7 (14), 6-3. Baptiste double-faulted three times during the second-set tiebreaker, and Bencic was credited with six match points saved in all.

In other matches, No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia needed two hours and 53 minutes to get past Hungary’s Anna Bondar 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (5); Canadian 24th seed Leylah Fernandez beat 31st seed Ann Li 6-3, 6-2; No. 26 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine eliminated Caty McNally 6-2, 6-3; and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced past Solana Sierra of Argentina 6-4, 6-3.

–Field Level Media

After snapping a four-game losing streak, the Milwaukee Brewers will turn to right-hander Chad Patrick against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday in the opener of the three-game series.

Arizona has not officially named a starter, but veteran right-hander Merrill Kelly (1-1, 9.31 ERA) is likely to make his third start since coming off the injured list against Patrick (1-1, 2.35 ERA).

Both Milwaukee and Arizona were idle Monday.

The Brewers avoided a sweep with a 5-0 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. Kyle Harrison allowed one hit over six innings with a career-high 12 strikeouts for Milwaukee.

Arizona rallied past San Diego 12-7 in Mexico City on Sunday with six runs in the seventh and four in the eighth. Tim Tawa ignited the seventh-inning rally with his first career grand slam.

Ildemaro Vargas had a homer, triple and double with four RBIs to extend his major league-leading hitting streak to 20 games this season, and 23 dating back to last year. It is the second-longest overall streak since the 25-gamer by Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds from June 1-29, 2024.

Catcher Adrian Del Castillo left in the third inning Sunday with a left ring finger dislocation after a foul tip off his glove.

“We’re going to continue to evaluate him through the course of the next couple of days,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said following Sunday’s game. “What does it mean for his playing time? What does it mean for potential IL? Right now, I don’t know.”

Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo left Saturday’s game with a left ankle sprain and is listed as day-to-day.

The 37-year-old Kelly began the season on the IL with a left intercostal nerve irritation, which caused tightness in his back. After an effective first start, Kelly was rocked his last time out for eight runs in 4 1/3 innings in an 11-5 loss to the White Sox, giving up three consecutive solo homers in the second inning.

Kelly is 5-2 with a 2.95 ERA in 10 careers starts vs. Milwaukee.

Patrick followed an opener in his last appearance and took the loss in a 5-2 defeat at Detroit, allowing four runs on six hits in four innings of relief. Prior to that, he allowed just one run in 14 2/3 innings in his three previous appearances.

“Obviously, there’s some back and forth in the head wanting to think of it as a long reliever role instead of the starting role. It kind of just plays some games a little bit with you,” Patrick said after the loss. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. You’ve still got to do it.”

Patrick has only faced the Diamondbacks once, allowing five hits over 4 1/3 scoreless innings, but he did not get the decision in a 5-4 loss last season.

The Brewers have lacked power with Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn and Christian Yelich on the injured list.

The Brewers have not had a home run in seven consecutive games, their most since a franchise-record 13 straight games in 1999. Milwaukee has one home run in its last 11 games and is tied for last in the majors with 19 homers.

Jake Bauers, tied for the team lead with five homers, doubled twice Sunday to extend his hitting streak to five games, hitting .381 over that span.

–Field Level Media