Blues at Wild
The Minnesota Wild will take a repeat effort with a little more finishing touch when they host the St. Louis Blues on Friday for Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round series. The Wild outshot the Blues 52-26 and outchanced them 21-6 in the opener, but Jake Allen shut the door and defenseman Joel Edmundson scored 17:48 into overtime as St. Louis posted a 2-1 victory.
“I don’t think you can get frustrated,” Minnesota center Eric Staal told reporters. “I think you’ve got to come back to work and play a similar game. … If we attack the net and get there into those dirty areas, we’re going to get a couple bounces and get some more goals, for sure.” Vladimir Sobotka, who recently was signed after spending three years in Russia, recorded the other goal for the Blues and leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko was quiet much of the night before helping set up the winner. Allen rebounded from a rough stretch in the middle of the season and has limited opponents to two or fewer goals in 13 of his last 17 contests. “We didn’t have the puck enough, and that’s an issue,” St. Louis coach Mike Yeo told reporters. “But I think we know that we have to be better. That’s the thing, we can’t just rely on Jake to have a performance like that night after night.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, Sportsnet 360, TVA3, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE BLUES: Allen was especially strong in the second and third periods of Game 1, when he stopped all 34 shots he faced as his teammates managed to get just 12 on Minnesota counterpart Devan Dubnyk. “They were throwing a lot at me, but my job is to stop the puck and give the boys a chance,” Allen told reporters. “A lot of shots from tough angles (and) I did a pretty decent job of keeping pucks away from their players.” Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo finished with team highs of five shots and 34 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time in the opener.
ABOUT THE WILD: Zach Parise gave Minnesota a chance by scoring off a nifty touch pass from captain Mikko Koivu with 22.7 seconds left in regulation for his 31st goal in 90 career playoff games. Parise led the way with seven shots while leading scorer Mikael Granlund - along with Jason Zucker and Charlie Coyle - finished with six in the series opener. “There are a few tweaks that we’ll make, but we’ve got to bring the same intensity and that same grit to our game and push for 60 minutes to be a little harder around the net,” Zucker told reporters.
OVERTIME
1. Edmundson, who also blocked four shots in the opener, recorded four goals in 136 career regular-season contests before scoring his second in 17 playoff games.
2. Staal went 14-8 on faceoffs in Game 1 as the Wild won 47 of the 80 overall draws.
3. The Blues registered four shots on four power-play opportunities in the opener and came up empty but thwarted all three of the Wild's chances.