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 On Sunday, Parise had a pair of goals as his team clinched a playoff
series on home ice for the first time in franchise history, beating
the St. Louis Blues 4-1, and winning their Western Conference
playoff series 4-2.
Right wingers Justin Fontaine and Nino Niederreiter also scored for
Minnesota and goalie Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves as the Wild advanced
to a meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks. It will be the third
consecutive season with a Minnesota-Chicago playoff series.
"It's a great accomplishment," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "I think
winning at home, it's the first time we've ever done that, that was
something that was very important to our group, to win in front of
our fans. Obviously you don't want to go back and play that team in
a Game 7 in their building. We knew that. But again, it meant a lot
to us to try to win this game in front of our fans. They deserved
that tonight."
Center T.J. Oshie scored for the Blues, who failed to advance past
the first round for the third consecutive season. Jake Allen started
the game in goal for the Blues, stopping 11 of the 13 shots he
faced. He was lifted in favor of Brian Elliot after Fontaine scored
in the second to make it 2-0 for Minnesota. Elliott finished with
six saves.
"It's terrible," said Allen, after the Blues won the Central
Division in the regular season, but managed just two playoff
victories. "To get a chance to win the Stanley Cup doesn't happen
too often in your career. Especially with a team like this. This
isn't acceptable for any of us, I don't think. This isn't going to
sit well with any of us for a while and it's going to be tough to
watch the rest of the playoffs knowing we're not in it."
Minnesota led 2-1 early in the third period and was weathering a
Blues momentum storm when Parise capped off a rush to the net,
knocking in the rebound of a shot by right winger Jason Pominville
that Elliott stopped. Niederreiter scored an empty-net goal for the
final margin.
With 22 points in 24 playoff games over three seasons with the Wild,
Parise is now tied atop the franchise's playoff scoring leaders list
alongside Marian Gaborik.
"He's tenacious," said Blues captain David Backes, who played
alongside Parise for Team USA in the last Olympics. "He's an
all-world player for a reason, because he works his butt off and
he's able to find opportunities like that. He did a good job. Made
us pay twice tonight."
The Wild, who have had the best power play in the playoffs thus far,
failed to score on an early man-advantage, but capitalized when one
of their own was in the penalty box.
Minnesota left winger Matt Cooke broke up a Blues pass and fed the
puck to Parise, who streaked down the left side of the ice,
surviving a check from St. Louis defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk once
he was over the blue line. Parise took the puck to the goal line in
the left corner and flipped a shot on net. The puck found a small
gap between Allen's right arm and the goalpost, giving the Wild an
early lead.
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"That's special at home," Parise said. "Every team is better when
they get the lead. To get the first one, it gives our crowd
something to get into it, get some excitement in the building. That
goes a long way. You never expect to get a shorty, but I saw an
opportunity to get around Shattenkirk. I got good body position on
him and was able to get a shot."
Fontaine doubled the Minnesota lead on a harmless-looking shot from
20 feet out that fooled Allen between the pads midway through the
second period. It was Fontaine's first goal of the playoffs, and was
enough to prompt Blues coach Ken Hitchcock to pull Allen and put
Elliott in goal for the first time this postseason.
"He's going to figure it out," said Hitchcock, defending the
decision to start Allen in all six games. "He's going to be a good
goalie."
With his contract up at the end of this season and the Blues'
repeated early exits from the playoffs, it's widely thought that
Hitchcock faces an uncertain future in St. Louis.
The Blues finally got on the board with 3.4 seconds left in the
second period, when Oshie capped off a scramble in front of Dubnyk,
slipping the puck between the post and the goalie's left skate. It
was the first goal of the playoffs for Oshie, who had drawn
criticism for his lack of offense in the series' first five games.
"You got to enjoy it, it's a great feeling there on the ice with the
fans," said Wild captain Mikko Koivu, after the team gave their
sellout crowd a post-game stick salute. "We never had that
opportunity to do it at home in front of our home fans, so we
enjoyed that. But at the end, we know there's a couple days and then
we go at it again. We're going to enjoy tonight and then start
preparing."
NOTES: The Wild signed C Christoph Bertschy to a three-year
entry-level contract that will start in the fall. Currently playing
with SC Bern in the Swiss League, Bertschy was picked by the Wild in
the sixth round of the 2012 draft. ... Blues C Jori Lehtera missed
Game 5 with a lower-body injury. He was injured by a shot from St.
Louis D Jay Bouwmeester in the third period of Game 4, which was won
by the Blues 6-1. Lehtera skated in the team's optional practice on
Saturday before they flew to Minnesota and was back in the lineup
for Game 6, replacing C Marcel Goc.
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