St. Louis Blues, Tarasenko Blanked 3-0

The St. Louis Blues rode the momentum of a dominating 4-1 win in Game Two of their quarterfinal series against the Minnesota Wild at Scottrade into Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, powered by Vladimir Tarasenko’s hat trick and the play of Jake Allen, the NHL’s hottest goalie over the past two to three weeks. The silence of the crowd during the National Anthem until the last few seconds was surprising. In general the crowd was no more of a factor than during a regular-season game in Edmonton.

And, make no mistake, the players that hurt the Blues the most in Game One were the guys wearing the big musical note on their sweaters.

Nevertheless, the Blues knew they would need the best game of the season to prevail against the Wild on the road, where they have now gone 0-9 in their last nine road playoff tilts, and been completely dominated on the scoreboard 28 to 11 in that stretch.

As with their deflating early exits the last three years, the Blues can tell themselves these things don’t matter, but in the final analysis, it gets into everybody’s head, and even the players and announcers who don’t mention it are still thinking it. Until the Blues are able to parch their throats with bubbly coming out of the Stanley Cup, it will matter.

But no team has ever won the Stanley Cup with a road winning percentage anywhere near .000, though mathematically it could be done by a team with home ice in every series.

Jake Allen was excellent for as long as he could hold out–and should still get the nod for Game Four–but increasing defensive breakdowns, missing the net on scoring opportunities, and being outshot 3:1 finally cooked his goose. He finished 21-of-23 for .913. The hero of Game Two, Vladimir Tarasenko, was not only held pointless, he was held shotless.

Apr 11, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) in action during the third period against the Minnesota Wild at Scottrade Center. The Blues won the game 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports

The Wild’s top line scored twice, with Zach Parise and Jason Pominville each notching a goal and an assist. Dubnyk stopped all 17 shots he faced.

Blues Coach Ken Hitchcock retooled his lines a bit for the shift to Xcel, starting the following four lines: Dmitrij Jaskin-David Backes-T.J. Oshie, Alexander Steen-Jori Lehtera-Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz-Paul Stastny-Patrik Berglund, and Steve Ott-Marcel Goc-Ryan Reaves.

He also didn’t mess with the modified “STL II” line that scored three goals in Game Two. At least at first.

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Hitchcock kept the same defensive pairings, which opened with Carl Gunnarsson-Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester-Zbynek Michalek, and Barret Jackman-Kevin Shattenkirk, though late in the game he paired Shatty and Petro together.

With Justin Fontaine back at full strength from a stomach virus, Wild Coach Mike Yeo went back to the lineups that powered the Wild in Game One over the Blues. Allen made an early save against Parise to get himself in the game. The Blues forced the Wild into three icing calls inside the first two minutes.

The Wild led in strong hitting after the first few minutes. The STL II line had some good puck possession in the Wild zone but couldn’t pull the trigger. By the 9:10 mark the Wild had outshot the Blues 5-1.

Past the 12-minute mark the Wild nearly scored and Lehtera cleared the puck out. At 13:50, after Chris Stewart slashed Barrett Jackman, Jackman retaliated and was called for cross-checking, giving the Wild the game’s first powerplay. Allen made a great play on the puck to clear the zone as the Wild were gathering momentum. Allen made a strong save on Dumba, who scored on the man-advantage in Game One. After the powerplay the Wild carried the play with a few rushes up ice with shots deep in the zone but were unable to connect.

Apr 20, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) makes a save in front of St. Louis Blues forward Jaden Schwartz (17) during the third period in game three of the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeated the Blues 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

With 2:48 left in the period, the Wild had doubled up the Blues on shots, 8-4, and finished outshooting the Blues 9-4. They also had 16 hits to the Blues’ 10, and 5 takeaways versus the Blues’ 1. However, the Blues led in blocked shots, 8 to 4. Whenever the road team can be outshot more than 2 to 1 and leave scoreless at the end of the period, it is a win for the road team.

Next: St. Louis Blues Playoffs: Steve Ott Gets Physical, Physical

The Blues started the second period controlling play but then with a strong scoring chance off of a turnover, Alexander Steen hooked Granlund to prevent a strong likelihood of a score. The Blues got a shorthanded 3-on-2 break and Schwartz was denied on a strong shot by Dubnyk. Strong penalty killing bailed the Blues out.

The Steen-Berglund-Lehtera line had a good shift but were unable to pull the trigger a little before the six-minute mark. Allen made a spectacular save on Coyle to keep the game scoreless and also closed the door on Niederreiter as the Blues’ defense was breaking down and giving far too many opportunities to the Wild. Allen was single-handedly keeping the Blues in the game, as it could easily be 2-0 or 3-0 by now.

The Blues are playing a team much like the Kings teams that beat them two of the past three years, but far more disciplined. They give up very little, and provoking the Wild will not carry the day.

At that point the shots were tilted deeply toward the Blues’ end, 17-6. A golden opportunity to set Schwartz off to the races with a breakaway was missed as Stastny could not get him the puck. At the midpoint the Wild had three times as many shots, 18-6. End-to-end action saw both teams exchange scoring chances, and Shattenkirk missed the net short-side following a perfect pass by Tarasenko. With 7:23 left in the second period the Wild had outshot the Blues 18-7.

At 5:52 Pietrangelo got caught in deep trying to pinch, and the Wild got an odd-man break with Parise trailing and Pominville put it behind Allen to take a 1-0 lead. Shortly after the goal, the Blues got a great scoring chance on an odd-man break but Berglund pushed the shot wide, as they had been doing the entire game on their rare scoring opportunities. At 4:40 the Blues trailed 1-0 while being outshot 19-7. The Wild’s discipline lent the impression that the Blues might not score the entire game.

With 3:47 left in the second period, Jay Bouwmeester failed to clear a puck at his feet and Parise scored unassisted to put the Wild up to a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 margin, with the Blues still not having sniffed a second of powerplay hockey. Through two periods the Blues were outshot 20-10.

After an uneventful first five minutes of the third period, Granlund missed a wide-open Blues net that would have iced the game around the six-minute mark. The Wild were not sitting back but coming at the Blues. In an effort to get something going, Hitch juggled the lines before the 10-minute mark, returning to the original SOB line of Steen-Oshie-Backes, and the original STL line of Schwartz-Tarasenko-Lehtera. Little came of it.

With 3:07 to play, with a faceoff in the Wild zone, the Blues pulled Allen, and the Wild won the faceoff and Oshie prevented an empty-net goal. Then after a shot was fanned on, Pominville shot wide but in the next rush Niederreider scored in the empty net unassisted at 17:58. Ott took a penalty with 57 seconds left and with Allen back in net the game ended 3-0.

The takeaway from Game Three is simple: the Blues are playing a team much like the Kings teams that beat them two of the past three years, but far more disciplined. They give up very little, and provoking the Wild will not carry the day; elite skills and unrelenting hard work and discipline for 60 minutes is the only path to victory.

Apr 20, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild defenseman Mathew Dumba (55) celebrates with goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) following game three of the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the St. Louis Blues at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeated the Blues 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Minnesota now leads the series 2 games to 1. The series resumes on Wednesday with another game at Xcel Energy Center, with the puck drop at 8:30 p.m. Central.

Let us know your thoughts, Blues fans!

Next: Blues Win Game Two: Hats Off To Tarasenko

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