The St. Louis Blues look to get a stranglehold on their Western Conference first-round series when they host the Minnesota Wild for Game 3 on Sunday afternoon.
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With Dubinsky in the box for cross-checking, Guentzel got his second goal of the game 11:48 into the third period to give the Penguins the 4-3 lead. “Yeah”, he said before pausing. At this rate, both the Wild and Chicago will be booking tee times in the coming days. He’s stopped 114 of the 117 shots he’s faced for a.974 save percentage and 0.91 goals-against-average against a Wild team that ranked second in the National Hockey League in scoring during the regular season. They have three goals in three games as Allen has stopped 114 of 117 shots for a.974 save percentage.
Game 2 of their quarterfinal series against the Minnesota Wild started much like Game 1 did – with the Blues seemingly on their heels, allowing the opposition to hem them into their defensive zone for long stretches of time.
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, whose playoff struggles are well known, said there was a sense of determination and even anger among his players after Minnesota set a franchise record for shots on goal in a game, but saw the home-ice advantage disappear.
Said Dubnyk: “We just need to get the next one”.
Boudreau also echoed this thought. They’re going to throw everything at us and we’re excited to go home for sure. “I’m not going to criticize our effort”. They want to win as bad as everybody. “But right now it’s not working”. He has been the best player on either team thus far in the series.
“It’s been the same”, Allen said of the three games.
When a reporter pointed out some of the line’s flaws, Boudreau got upset. I think it’s two pretty evenly-based teams. “But if we can get a little bit in their head, and more importantly for us start to find the blueprint of what we need to do to be successful and keep getting better as a group, then we’re happy”.
But their tortoise-and-the-hare strategy of conceding half of the ice, crouching in the weeds and waiting for a fortuitous bounce is unsustainable against a relentless Minnesota attack that kept 19,000-plus fans on their feet for more than three hours. He was coaching Anaheim past year when the Ducks lost their first two games at home, and then won the next three before finally losing the first-round series in seven games. It’s tempting to be watching this series through your fingers, expecting more of the same, but this Blues team isn’t like those squads. Steen extended the lead with a late empty-net goal, and the Blues closed out their third win in a row in front of a thunderous Scottrade Center crowd. Charlie Coyle and Jason Zucker, who had six shots on goal apiece, were particularly snake-bitten with Coyle’s stick snapping during his close-range try in overtime that was lineup. We could go on and on. Parise spoiled it with his one-timer off a tic-tac-toe feed from Koivu and Mikael Granlund with Dubnyk pulled for the final minute.
A 3-0 series lead against a team that many national pundits predicted would dispatch the Blues-it’s a remarkable feat.
The Wild dominate the shots early in the second as well, but the Blues made the first mark on the scoreboard. Which means the Wild must figure out a way to get the puck past Allen and the rest of the defense.
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Minnesota tied it with a goal from Coyle with 7:01 left in the second period. “He’s got a hell of a shot”.
