Overheard in the Dallas Stars’ locker room ahead of the game, here was center Tyler Seguin’s assessment of facing the Wild: “Both teams wear green.”

He’s not wrong.

Turns out, that’s not all the two teams had in common, as a back-and-forth game led to a 4-2 victory for Wild at Xcel Energy Center in front of an announced 19,107. That’s a bit of a twist, considering the exact hue of Dallas’ color is “victory” green.

The Wild improved to 19-15-3 while the Stars fell to 20-15-3 in the stacked Central Division.

Seguin started off his team’s scoring with 12 minutes, 37 seconds to go in the first period, redirecting defenseman Esa Lindell’s shot past Wild goaltender Alex Stalock. Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon then equalized with less than a minute to go in the period, burying a rebound from winger Charlie Coyle’s initial shot.

The Wild’s Eric Staal tried to get control of the puck in the first period against the Stars on Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center.
Carlos Gonzalez
The Wild’s Eric Staal tried to get control of the puck in the first period against the Stars on Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center.

While it took both teams most of that first period to shake off their three-day holiday break, the action picked up in the second 20 minutes. On an odd-man rush, center Eric Staal scored at 5:12 thanks to an assist from Stars defenseman Greg Pateryn. Wild defenseman Matt Dumba then tried to draw poor Pateryn into the celly, which did not go over well.

Stars winger Mattias Janmark scored 10 seconds into a power-play when a wide shot from Seguin bounced off the boards and right to him at 10:33. But the Wild return with a 10-second power-play goal of its own at 13:08 thanks to winger Mikael Granlund.

Spurgeon looked to have scored his second of the night with a wraparound buzzer-beater, but the officials ruled that time had expired. But winger Jason Zucker made up for it with an empty-net goal to end the game.

“I think for us, it’s continuing to play to our identity,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said pregame. “I think when we do it, we’re very effective and when we get away with it we get schooled. And it’s kind of black and white for us. It’s bottom line. There’s no gray area with our team. When we play a deep game, and it’s effective, and then we can really control a hockey game, and the minute we let it go, then the other team with their speed gets into us a little bit. … It’s awful hard to doing that off the break to get emotionally connected.”

The Wild faces the Nashville Predators at 7 p.m. Friday at Xcel Energy Center.