WILD AT BLUES
TV: NBCSN, SN360, TVA Sports 3, FS-MW, FS-N
Best-of-7 series is tied 2-2
ST. LOUIS -- Now that the St. Louis Blues have reclaimed home-ice advantage in the Western Conference First Round series against the Minnesota Wild, the objective is to not give it back.
St. Louis got what it wanted with a 6-1 win in Game 4 on Wednesday and sets up a pivotal Game 5 at Scottrade Center on Friday.
"Prepare and do the same things again," St. Louis left wing Alexander Steen said Thursday. "I think the biggest change was in our checking, felt like we took away their time and space and made it really difficult for them to get in and generate anything.
"There will be some adjustments during the course of the series. Game by game, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. You try and maintain that even-keel mindset and go about your business."
The Blues took matters into their own hands, got together as a group after being shut out in Game 3 and talked about some corrections that needed to be made prior to Game 4. Suffice to say, those corrections worked. But St. Louis expects Minnesota, which won Game 1 at Scottrade Center, to respond in Game 5.
"They'll come out, they'll be ready," Blues center Paul Stastny said. "I think for us it's about what we do. When we've won, when we've been successful, I think we've been worried about our game plan and we've stuck to it and haven't deviated from it too much and if we worry about what they're going to do, that's up to our coaching staff to get a game plan for us and we just listen to that game plan and go from it and we should be successful."
The Wild seemed unfazed by the events of Game 4. They didn't practice on Thursday, instead meeting the media at an airport hangar ready to put the past behind them.
"We’ve got such good group, a deep group and a good mix of veterans and young guys that have all been through it," said Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who allowed six goals on 17 shots before being pulled late in the second period Wednesday. "You can just feel it in the room. There's zero panic in our group and we know what we’ve got to change and we’ll be ready to do it."
Minnesota left wing Thomas Vanek agreed.
"We’ve been a resilient group for the last three months, especially on the road," Vanek said. "As a team, we know we can win on the road. That's important. Obviously, it’s frustrating. I think maybe we looked ahead, because we knew a 3-1 lead would have been huge. But you have to give them credit. They came out hard. We knew they would. They got a couple of early goals, and you give a team like that a couple goal lead early on, they’re good enough to win games. There’s a reason they won the division."
The Blues are 8-12 after being tied 2-2 in a series, but have lost nine of the past 10. The Wild are 1-2 in franchise history after a series is tied 2-2.
The St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild have been trading blows, though the latest definitely contained the most force.
After running it up in Minnesota, the Blues return home Friday night for Game 5 with a shot at gaining their first lead in the first-round series.
Wednesday's 6-1 win was pretty well secured after the Blues imposed their physical style to build a three-goal lead in just over 10 minutes.
"When we check, we score. It looks like we've joined the tournament now, and we're dialed in," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "So we've got home ice back, we're dialed into our game and hopefully we're going to be hard to play against."
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and Kevin Shattenkirk added three assists to run his series total to seven and to 11 in his last eight overall.
The Blues led 6-1 after two periods and chased goaltender Devan Dubnyk for the second time in less than two weeks after doing so in a 4-2 win in the regular-season finale April 11. The problem is they haven't been able to play with any consistency.
"We had to assert ourselves," David Backes said. "We've just got to stop this trend of every other game."
It might be preferable to how recent playoff series have gone. Over the last two seasons, St. Louis has gone up 2-0 in the first round before dropping four straight. Including a sweep in the second round the previous season and the Game 3 loss in Minnesota, the Blues had lost their last 11 playoff games beyond Game 2.
Tarasenko has fallen into the trend with his five goals in the series coming in the wins, while he's had no shots on goal in the losses. He had a hat trick in Game 2 and has eight goals and three assists in eight games against Minnesota this season.
Just one of those contests has been decided by one goal and the series numbers are tight. The teams have split four in Minnesota and four in St. Louis with 22 goals apiece.
However, after allowing a franchise-record six playoff goals in the latest, the Wild are rethinking things.
"We may have been a little cocky. We felt really good and rightfully so," left wing Zach Parise said. "We felt good about the way we played the last game. I don't know if we thought it was going to be an easy game or if we thought they were going to pack it in, but that wasn't the case at all."
Minnesota managed a season-low 18 shots and didn't score at even strength.
That made for an easy night for Jake Allen, who has provided some balance for the Blues with a .935 save percentage in the series as well as a .945 mark over a 6-3-1 span. He's won three of five starts against the Wild without allowing more than two goals.
Both goaltenders are starting their first playoff series. Dubnyk's numbers are more erratic with an .864 save percentage, and that includes a Game 3 shutout. He's faced St. Louis seven times in just under six weeks with four wins, though he's allowed three goals or more four times.
After getting off to an eye-catching start with Minnesota in which he won 26 of 34 starts with a .939 save percentage, the heavy workload could be catching up with Dubnyk during a 3-5-1 April with an .895 mark.
"I think none of us expected this to be a sweep in our favor or a short series, by any means," Dubnyk said. "We knew it was going to be a battle, and that's what its turning out to be."
) then I think Dubnyk will really be a headcase. Dubnyk is who we have seen all these years ... and average to slightly above average goalie.
