In St Louis, the Minnesota Wild came out strong on Thursday and took a 3-0 lead in the first period over the Blues.
Yeah, well, that was it.
“It’s disappointing. No question it is,” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said. “This is a hockey club that has won a Stanley Cup two years ago and they just plug away.”
The Blues reeled off seven unanswered goals in a 7-3 win.
The Blues will face the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“When we’re skating and we’re physical, I think we give them a lot of issues,” the Blues’ Ryan O’Reilly said of the Avalanche. “Whether that’s forecheck or defending, when we play our heavy game and commit to it and put pucks in and don’t feed their rush, we make it tough on them and find ways to beat them. That’s what we’ve got to do. That’s got to be our focus. We know that they have a lot of talent over there. They work hard, but for us, it’s an exciting challenge. We’re going to have some fun and we’re going to beat them.”
Jordan Binnington made 17 saves to get the win after a shaky opening frame.
Nico Sturm, Ryan Suter and Marcus Foligno scored in the first period for Minnesota, who seemingly had the game in hand.
“When you play good teams like that, great teams, you raise your play up a little bit,” Foligno said. “Just emotional games against them. They’re a great team. We’re a great team. It’s going to be a fun series.”
David Perron, Jordan Kyrou and Brayden Schenn struck for a pair of goals apiece in the win.
“It was pretty obvious what was going on in the first period,” Perron said. “Like [former Blues coach Ken Hitchcock] used to say, ‘We just threw our sticks on the ice and played,’ and so we had talked about it. [Blues coach Craig Berube] brought it up as well. … The details, execution, playing the right way in a way respecting the game, doing the right things all the time, I think that matters. We did it in the last two periods. We got rewarded.”
Zach Sanford who added a single marker for the Blues, got the rally on track with a strike in the second period.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 20 saves in the loss.
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