Wild/Blues May 6 Recap
Recap for Blues-Wild
Jackson Gross-Social Media Intern
Empty Betters Podcast
In a pivotal game three and the series tied 1-1, the St. Louis Blues hosted the Minnesota Wild at the Enterprise Center.
Thanks to a fast start in the first period, the Wild we able to regain home-ice advantage and took a 2-1 series lead, winning by a final score of 5-1.
Minnesota broke the scoring early in the game as winger Jordan Greenway beat Blues goalie Villie Husso just 39 seconds into the game. Center Joel Eriksson-Ek set up Greenway with a saucer pass from the left to right circle and Greenway hit the one-timer.
The Wild would score again on just their second shot on goal as right winger Ryan Hartman sent left winger Kirill Kaprizov on solo breakaway after Kaprizov forced a turnover from center Ivan Barbashev.
Karpizov missed the initial shot but was able to shoot the puck off of Husso’s left skate and into the back of the net. That goal gave the Wild a 2-0 lead with 17:42 left in the first period.
The injury bug on the backend continued for St. Louis as they lost Torey Krug with 8:58 left in the first period after already losing Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo to injuries heading into game 3.
The Blues pumped in 14 shots on Wild netminder Marc Andre-Fluery but the former Vezina trophy winner stopped them all as the Wild would head into the first intermission up 2-0.
The Wild would keep up the momentum into period number two as after a lead pass from defensemen Jared Spurgeon to Kaprizov, the Russian forward found right winger Mats Zuccarello on a 2-on-1.
Zuccarello would beat Husso to the high blocker side from the right circle for his first point of the series and gave the Wild a 3-0 lead.
St. Louis would get a power play with 3:52 to play, but a heads up play from Wild forward Marcus Foligno forced Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich into an interference penalty and killed the final 27 seconds of the St. Louis powerplay.
Minnesota would outshoot St. Louis 10-8 in the second period as the Wild would take a 3-0 lead into the final 20 minutes.
Things would not St. Louis’ way early as on the first shift the third period, the Eriksson-Ek-Foligno-Greenway line scored just 22 seconds in as Foligno set up Eriksson-Ek from behind the net and Minnesota took a 4-0 lead.
St. Louis finally sniped one past Fleury after defensemen Jared Spurgeon took a tripping penalty. Captain Ryan O’Reilly beat Fleury low-stick side and rung some iron as the Blues chipped into the Wild lead, making it 1-4 with 17:43 left to play in regulation.
The Wild would salt the game away as the Blues went to the empty net with just over 7:30 left to play, but after the Wild won the faceoff, defensemen Jonas Brodin hit the wide-open cage from his own zone to put Minnesota up 5-1 with 7:29 remaining.
Four players for the Wild would score two points including Kaprizov, Hartman, Foligno, and Eriksson-Ek.
It was a vintage playoff performance from Fleury, as he made 29 saves on 30 shots including 14 in the first period.
With the win, Fleury tied former Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr for third most playoff wins with 92.
Meanwhile for youngster Husso, he struggled in net, giving up four goals on the 32 shots he faced.
Game four will be a Sunday afternoon affair, as St. Louis will play host again to the Wild at 3:30 CST/4:30 EST.
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his recap was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.