|
 St. Louis quieted the crowd with an early lead and survived the
Minnesota Wild's brief rally, winning 6-1 to knot the best-of-seven
Western Conference series 2-2.
Right winger Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice while fellow right
wingers Ryan Reaves and David Backes as well as centers Paul Stastny
and Patrik Berglund all scored single goals for the Blues, who led
3-0 barely halfway through the first period.
St. Louis goalie Jake Allen made 17 saves as the Blues recaptured
home ice advantage in the series. Game 5 will be played Friday night
in St. Louis.
"This is our game," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's not our
best game. We can play a lot better than we played today. We've
still got things we've got to work on, but this is our game. We're
going to play this game and if it's good enough, we're going to put
it out there, and if we win with it, great. If we don't win with it,
so be it. But this is our game. We're going to play our game now."
Defenseman Jared Spurgeon scored the lone goal for Minnesota, which
looked tentative early and sustained its most lopsided playoff loss.
"Obviously, our start was not good enough," said Minnesota coach
Mike Yeo. "And you combine that with the fact they had a great
start, so they were on top of their game, and we were not even close
to on top of ours. Once they got up a couple, we got even worse."
Uneven play by the home team, and some opportunistic play by the
Blues, made it a rough night for Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk. He
allowed four goals on the Blues' first dozen shots and finished with
just 11 saves on 17 shots. Backup goalie Darcy Kuemper came on with
3:10 left in the second period, and he stopped all nine shots he
faced.
"He'd saved everything he could see up until this game, so we knew
we had to get bodies in front of him, screen him and find second and
third opportunities," said Blues captain David Backes. "The first
goal was that way, second goal's a tip, third goal's a rebound and
the next couple are on the rush. We did a good job of occupying
their zone."
The Blues snapped a streak of nine consecutive playoff road losses
by earning their first postseason win away from home since 2012.
In Game 2, the Blues needed 20 minutes to get their first four shots
on goal. They did that in four minutes Wednesday, and their fifth
shot went in when Reaves took a hard shot on the ice from the blue
line that fooled Dubnyk.
It was 2-0 just 85 seconds later when Tarasenko tipped a long shot
by defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk into the upper corner of the net.
"We were able to play well in the second game at home, and with this
momentum and seeing what works, we just need to bring that to the
next game," said Shattenkirk, who had three assists. "We seemed to
really just get Game 3 out of our minds. That's all in the past now
and now we have some positive things to look at and build on."
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Backes made it 3-0 when the first period was barely half over.
Another long-range shot by Shattenkirk was blocked by Dubnyk at the
top of the crease. The goalie dropped to his knees in an attempt to
smother the shot, but Backes crashed to the net and poked the puck
free, slipping it over the goal line for his first goal of the
series.
The Wild began the second period on a power play, and finally gave
their crowd a reason to erupt when Spurgeon caught a pass from right
winger Nino Niederreiter and hit the upper left corner of the net,
making it 3-1.
But the home crowd's euphoria was short-lived, as Stastny scored his
first goal of the playoffs less than two minutes later, beating
Dubnyk between the skates and re-establishing a three-goal lead.
"That hurt," Wild left winger Zach Parise said. "You get that (power
play) to start the second and give the crowd something to cheer
about and then they come right back. It's always so important after
a goal for or against to follow it up. We tried to get ourselves
back in the game there, but they got the fourth one. That hurt."
Tarasenko and Berglund both scored before the second period was
done, chasing Dubnyk from the net.
"Forget about it," Dubnyk said. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't make
a difference if we lost 1-0 or lost the way we did. It's 2-2 and we
know we've got to be better than that. I've got to be better than
that. We've all got to be better than that and we'll get back at it
in St. Louis. It really doesn't make a difference. It's a 2-2
series."
NOTES: The 12 minutes of penalties assessed to Blues C Steve Ott in
Game 2 tied his playoff career high. ... This is the ninth playoff
series in Wild history, but only the second time they have held a
2-1 series lead. In 2008 Minnesota won two of the first three in a
first-round series with Colorado, but the Avalanche won the series'
final three games. ... Blues coach Ken Hitchcock dressed LW Chris
Porter for Wednesday's game after Porter was a healthy scratch in
the first three games of the series. "Speed, hard on the forecheck,
good puck-protection guy," Hitchcock said of Porter after
Wednesday's team skate. "Always been a good playoff player for us.
Time for him to come in."
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