St. Louis Blues Almost Choke Against the Minnesota Wild

The St. Louis Blues had a rare break of four days between games and you could tell, in a positive way. The Blues outplayed the Minnesota Wild and were clearly the fresher team.

It was a much needed break for a team that has been decimated by injury and you could tell they had benefited from a break. Not only did they get an opportunity to get in some practice time, that was all but non-existent playing almost every other day or traveling on a day off, but they got a break from the grind to rest their legs and heal their wounds.

Sure, no players returned off IR but it was a huge energy boost for a squad that was just beginning to look weary. The Blues came out in the first period anything but, with Jori Lehtera lighting the lamp at 7:44 of the opening period.
While the big Finn had little other option, it was great to see him actually fire a shot at the goaltender instead of looking for someone to pass it off to, which is his normal way.

It didn’t take much longer for the Blues to put another on the board, though it came with a bit of controversy. Leading up to the goal, Kyle Brodziak came into the zone back-first and seemingly having lost the puck for a brief moment.

According to Tom Timmerman, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the league explained that it was determined Brodziak was in possession and thus the rule allows a player to go in with the body before the puck in such an instance.
So, given the rare positive ruling in the Blues’ favor, Brodziak dished it off to Ryan Reaves and he snuck one in that Devan Dubnyk really should have stopped.

Minnesota came out with great energy in the second period and would end up outshooting the Blues 12-8. They had the better of the play for almost all of the second as well, but were not rewarded for it. They nearly got a goal on this play, but Jake “the snake” Allen looked like he had fully returned to form with a spectacular save in the middle frame.

Patrik Berglund scored at 10:21 of the second period to give the Blues their third of the game, again sneaking one Dubnyk’s armpit. The Blues chased the Wild goaltender from the net, having allowed three goals on 16 shots, all of which he probably could have saved.

The replacement, Darcy Kuemper made some good saves in relief, including a good glove save on a Robby Fabbri breakaway. As, is typical of overly passionate fans, they like to over-react. Apparently our friends over at Gone Puck Wild had to calm some of their fans down in regards to their goaltending situation.

Unfortunately, the Wild’s dominance in the second carried over into the third.  The Blues could not keep the shutout going as Ryan Suter scored his eighth of the season at 11:02 of the third frame. Dmitrij Jaskin was unable to get the puck out of the zone after a battle on the boards and then failed to follow Suter to the net, who roofed a backhand over Allen when he went for the double-pad stack.

To make matters worse, the Blues gave up another one with over five minutes left in the third. Blues fans had to be getting visions of that Ottawa let up in their heads when Mathew Dumba banged home a goal on the backside after taking an unfortunate bounce away from Allen.

The Blues would end up finishing off the Wild with Fabbri scoring a rare empty net goal.  However, it did not finish cleanly as St. Louis needed another spectacular stop by Allen before the full 60 was over.

Negatives:

The Blues could not finish another game.  They got the win, but again could not put in an entire 60 minutes.  Granted, they expended a ton of energy in the opening period and formed a solid lead because of it, but they took their foot off the gas and let another good team back into the contest.

St. Louis was extremely fortunate to get the win.  You make your own bounces sometimes, but if Dubnyk was not so terrible, this one could have been an entirely different story.

This game was a big showcase of the team’s problems in the playoffs.  There is just not a moment when you can let your foot off the gas, because good teams will take advantage.

Positives:

Jake Allen was great.  The usual people will find something wrong with something he did somewhere, but if not for him, Minnesota ties the game or maybe wins it.

The Blues kept pace in the division.  While it isn’t necessary that they win the division, it would still be beneficial for them to get home-ice in round one and they got a victory on a night that the Blackhawks and Stars got wins.

Next: Blues face tough stretch

When the Blues play the way their coach demands, they kick teams’ asses.  Sorry for the language, but that’s the fact of it.  When they elect to not do so, they get the results you saw late in games in Ottawa and Minnesota.  If they could find it within themselves to play the entire games the way they did in the first, they can beat anyone.