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Wild Blog: Wild Has St. Louis Singing The Blues In Series Win

by Craig D. Schroepfer, @CDSWCCO

The St. Louis Blues came into Game 6 knowing they needed to play their best game of the series for their season to continue.

And yet it was the Minnesota Wild who played like they had no interest in going back to the "Show-Me-State" for a seventh game.

Goals by Zach Parise and Justin Fontaine gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead as the Wild would never trail in the game, defeating the Blues 4-1 to win the series 4-2.

Minnesota controlled play from the beginning of the game, out-shooting St. Louis 10-4 in the first period. The Wild scored the first goal of the game short-handed when Parise was able to skate into the St. Louis zone, surrounded by three Blues players, and find just enough space to get the puck on net and past goaltender Jake Allen, giving Minnesota a 1-0 lead.

"I saw him go down early in that paddle down position and I felt I was far enough out to try and hit a hole," Parise said about his first goal. "You try to raise it enough where you are a little lucky and fortunately it went in."

St. Louis put forth a better effort in the second period but found themselves down 2-0 when Fontaine fired a wrist shot that beat Allen through the five-hole. That goal would mean the end of the day for Allen as he was pulled in favor of Brian Elliott.

"It's two bad goals that can't go in this time of year," Allen said after the game. "It's terrible right now. Playing against a team like the Wild that doesn't give up much, those goals can't go in."

St. Louis was able to get on the board before the second intermission as T.J. Oshie scored his first goal of the series at 19:56, making it a 2-1 game after two periods.

That goal had Wild fans a little on edge, wondering if the Blues had the momentum they needed to get back in this game. A minute into the third period, Parise swung momentum back in the Wild's favor as he drove hard to the net and put back a rebound from Jason Pominville past Elliott to give Minnesota a two goal lead again at 3-1.

For the rest of the third period, Minnesota would frustrate St. Louis by repeatedly beating the Blues to loose pucks and not giving up rebounds on shots on net. Devan Dubnyk was solid again in goal for the Wild stopping 30 of 31 shots. Nino Neiderreiter's empty-net goal at 18:08 sealed the 4-1 win and the series for Minnesota.

After the game it was a quiet atmosphere in both locker rooms. Minnesota was grateful for the win, but they have their eyes focus on bigger things. Winning one playoff series isn't enough for them.

"It's step one. For most of the guys in here last year it was a big series win to go to the second round. Once you get that taste you want it again," Dubnyk said. "Same thing for myself, I just don't want to stop playing hockey right now. We know with this group we can continue to go further and that's what everyone else is focused on right now."

As for St. Louis, it's three years in a row where they are done in the first round, leaving the Blues players flustered.

"It sucks. There's no other summary of it," Blues captain David Backes said. "We put a lot into the regular season to get into the playoffs and rather than go up a notch to beat a team, we are on our heels too much and they take it to us. I wish I knew why this was. If I knew, I would have fixed this a long time ago and we'd be going on to play Chicago."

Instead it will be Minnesota advancing to the next round to face an old nemesis, the Chicago Blackhawks. The series is expected to get underway sometime this coming weekend.

In the meantime. Wild fans are still celebrating Minnesota doing something that hasn't been done in the State Of Hockey since 1991, winning a playoff series on home ice.

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