It’s early yet for an NHL team to receive a fatal blow, especially if your team is within five points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference — as the Minnesota Wild were on Wednesday morning.

On the other hand, the Wild are a game shy of the midpoint of their season and are buried near the bottom — 13 of 16 teams — of the Western Conference. And after Wednesday night’s 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, they are 1-6-0 in their past seven games.

Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson scored on odd-man rushes as the Stars swept the season series, 3-0, against their Central Division rival and ruined the NHL debut of Wild goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt.

Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored third-period goals for Minnesota, but the Wild fell to 3-9 this season against the eight Western Conference teams currently in playoff position.

After beating the Wild in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Stars have won all three meetings against Minnesota and outscored the Wild by a combined score of 19-5.

Called up Sunday from the Wild’s American Hockey League club in Iowa, Wallstedt stopped 27 of 34 shots but didn’t get a ton of help from his teammates, who couldn’t generate consistent time in the Dallas zone and created several odd-man rushes with turnovers between the blue lines.

Two nights after Dallas rookie Matt Murray shut out Minnesota at Xcel Energy Center, Scott Wedgewood had 17 saves for the Stars, who have been playing without injured No. 1 goaltender Jake Oettinger of Lakeville since mid-December.

Pavelski opened the scoring when he intercepted a cross-ice pass from Mats Zuccarello behind the red line, started a 2-on-1 with Robertson and beat Wallstedt to the high far corner with a wrist shot from the right circle for a 1-0 lead at 16:45. Wallstedt, who turned 21 in November, became the 150th different NHL goalie that Pavelski, 39, has scored on in a 20-year career.

Duchene made it 2-0 early in the second period after Ryan Suter got the puck deep on a pass from the blue line off the end boards. The puck angled to the near post and caromed off Wallstedt’s right pad into the slot, where Duchene was waiting for the rebound. He popped it past Wallstedt at 4:28.

Hintz scored to finish a back-breaking 4-on-4 shift for the Wild late in the second period.

Moments after Hintz’s goal, Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber corralled a rebound and flipped it high off the crossbar behind Wedgewood, but it bounced out instead of in. Shortly thereafter, after Wild defenseman Dakota Mermis had a shot blocked, the Stars raced the other way and Hintz scored on a 2-on-1 with Jason Marchmont.

After the goal, Faber, watching from the bench, broke his stick in frustration.

Boldy was credited with a goal after Faber’s shot from the point bounced off his back while he was screening Wedgewood to make it 3-1 just 4:22 into the third period, but Robertson scored on a 2-on-1 to make it 4-1 just 3 minutes, 17 seconds later, and Nils Lundqvist made it 5-1 at 9:26.

Hartman scored on the Wild’s only power play with 8:57 left in regulation, and Tyler Seguin finished a long forecheck with a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 6-2 with 3:50 remaining. Former Wild forward Sam Steel scored from the right circle, as well, with 1:43 remaining. It marked the fourth time this season the Wild have surrendered at least seven goals in a game, and second against Dallas, which beat Minnesota 8-2 on Nov. 12.

The Wild next play back-to-backs at Xcel Energy Center against Philadelphia on Friday and Arizona on Saturday.

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