Wild at Blues
The St. Louis Blues will need to find a way to cool off the league's hottest road team when they host the Minnesota Wild in Saturday's Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series. The Wild tied an NHL record by winning 12 straight away from home before dropping the regular-season finale in St. Louis, but they continued their road prowess with a 4-2 victory over the Blues in the series opener.
"We've got to play better," St. Louis captain David Backes said. "They came out and played a solid road game. We needed to capitalize on a few more chances." The final score was not indicative of the tight battle, with Minnesota sandwiching a pair of empty-net goals around a short-handed tally by the Blues' Alexander Steen in the final 73 seconds. It marked the first Game 1 victory in a postseason series in 12 years for the Wild, who expect a stong effort from the Central Division champions on Saturday. "We know the further it's going to go, the tougher it's going to get," Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu said.
TV: 3 p.m. ET, NBC, RSN
ABOUT THE WILD: Coach Mike Yeo emphasized that Minnesota prefers to play a "speed game" and that was illustrated by Jason Zucker, who zipped around the net to bury a wraparound attempt 2:47 into the game - his fourth goal in four games since returning from a two-month absence with a broken clavicle. "That's one of our strengths, is playing a fast game, a speed game," said forward Zach Parise, who had two assists. "We want to dictate the pace of the game." Goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who sparked the Wild's midseason turnaround after he was acquired from Arizona, had lost all seven career decisions against St. Louis before joining the Wild but has beaten the Blues in three of four starts since.
ABOUT THE BLUES: St. Louis did not apply a ton of pressure on Dubnyk, managing 19 shots on goal overall and only 11 through the first two periods, which coach Ken Hitchcock said continued a season-long trend of the team struggling following a lengthy rest. "We have not played well off of layoffs all year. This is probably another example of that," Hitchcock said after the Blues fell to 1-7-1 this season coming off at least three days of rest. Rookie netminder Jake Allen, who made 25 saves in a performance that Hitchcock termed "great," will get his second consecutive start for the Blues, who were stymied on both power-play opportunities by Minnesota's top-ranked penalty kill.
OVERTIME
1. Zucker scored 12 of his 21 regular-season goals away from home.
2. Steen scored his second career short-handed goal of the postseason in Game 1.
3. Minnesota ended a string of seven straight Game 1 playoff losses dating to April 2003.