Wilds lead the series 2-1. game 4 is here on sunday.
marcus foligno and ryan hartman each had two assists, and marc-andre fleury had 29 saves for the wild, world no. 2 seed in the central division.
“I thought we kept it simple,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “We weren’t trying to go east and west. We were just throwing pucks in the zone and skating, and that’s the game, right? And you know, everybody talks about our team being a physical team, but we can skate.”
ryan o’reilly scored and ville husso had 28 saves for the blues, the no. 3 seeds from the central.
“We came out with great energy, feeding off the building, and I think we did some things right, but maybe we got too excited on offense,” O’Reilly said. “We have to be responsible and then build our game from there. Obviously, we were down by two early on, and yeah, we need to respond quicker. We just got a little frustrated, and that took our breath away.” of our candles. it was too difficult to generate anything to regain momentum. yeah, it was just hard.”
[related: complete coverage of the series wild vs. blues]
blues defenseman marco scandella returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury, but they lost defenseman torey krug midway through the first when he limped to the locker room following a hit in the neutral zone over wild forward matt boldy at 10:57.
jordan greenway gave minnesota a 1-0 lead 39 seconds into the first period, turning a stopwatch into a 2-on-1 with eriksson ek after ivan barbashev’s fumble in the offensive zone.
“St. Louis had good pressure to start with,” Fleury said. “I think our team defended well. We stuck together, stayed in the middle and didn’t give them too much.”
kaprizov made it 2-0 at 2:18 when he fired a shot with husso’s left skate from behind the net after husso got a piece of kaprizov’s breakaway attempt.
“He’s one of those guys who finds a way to score from anywhere, and that’s nothing new for us,” wild forward mats zuccarello said. “It’s good to see. You work hard and you get the rebounds, and we got the rebounds today.”
video: min@stl, gm3: kaprizov benches one of husso
once down two goals, the blues tried to increase their physical intensity instead of playing the match.
“I think obviously we got pretty excited being back home with the crowd,” st. center louis tyler bozak said. “And maybe sometimes we hit when we didn’t need to or we went all out to make a hit. We have to be careful with that, run too much, and just be ready, and we’ll be ready.” for the next game.”
zuccarello increased the lead to 3-0 at 7:44 of the second period, converting a 2-on-1 holding the puck and hitting husso high on the stick side after a blues offensive zone loss.
eriksson ek made it 4-0 22 seconds into the third period when he scored from the slot after a pass from foligno.
video: min@stl, gm3: eriksson ek scores 22 seconds in the 3rd
“the third and fourth goals there, their goals that [they got], we shouldn’t have let them happen”, st. coach louis craig berube said.
o’reilly’s power play goal cut Savage’s lead to 4-1 at 2:17, a shot from right circle after a pass from colton parayko.
jonas brodin scored on an empty net at 12:31 for the final 5-1.
“It’s nice to get a win here, get some confidence,” Zuccarello said. “At the same time, this game is over. You’re looking forward to the next one.”
notes: berube said krug will be re-evaluated on Saturday but had no further information on the injury. … Fleury won his 92nd Stanley Cup playoff game to tie Grant Fuhr for third in NHL history behind Patrick Roy (151) and Martin Brodeur (113). … two goals in 2:18 were the fastest to start a playoff game in wild history (5:16, game 5, 2016 first round). … minnesota ended a seven-game losing streak at st. Lewis; the savages were outscored 35-15 in those games. …scandella was minus-2 at 17:18. … blues defensemen nick leddy (upper body) and robert bortuzzo (upper body) did not play. leddy has missed two games, bortuzzo one. … s t. Louis finished with 33 hits, 21 in the first half.