But he may not be coming back to visit anytime soon.
The Blues didn’t need another herculean effort in Game 2 from goalie Jake Allen, but they did need another goal from defenseman Joel Edmundson and the game-winner from Jaden Schwartz to take back-to-back games by the same score. And there was only 2:27 left in the game. They’re going to throw everything at us and we’re excited to go home for sure. “And now we’re going to have to do the same thing [in Game 3]”.
St. Louis Blues’ Colton Parayko (55) and teammate Joel Edmundson. It must grate on him that the Wild completely dominated Game 1 and came away with a win thanks (mostly) to the guy in the other net.
I’m not going to BS anyone and say I think the Blues had this all planned out to the letter. “We’ll look at what we did right, we’ll look at what we did not well enough and we find a way to get a little bit better and that’s what we’re on right now”. Allen made some handsome saves throughout the game to keep the Blues alive. I thought we played well through spurts.
“When it’s tight like that, any play can be the difference, and we’ve just got to keep playing”, Dubnyk said. “I think we all know that”. Minnesota’s penalty kill was good, going 6-for-6 in the series, but at the end of the first period, the Wild’s power play was anything but adequate.
“It was a heck of a game”, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.
“They did a tremendous job of blocking out and not letting us get those second chances”, Boudreau said. Just get right back on the horse.
The Blues no longer have David Backes and TJ Oshie, forwards that were HUGE in the last series.
First, Alexander Steen was called for holding the stick, and then Upshall was whistled for elbowing, putting the Wild on a two-man advantage for 1:25.
The Wild are clearly not pleased with being down 1-0 in the best-of-7 series. In 154 career games, including 18 in the playoffs, the 23-year-old defenseman has just seven goals.
“Jake was unbelievable; I think everybody knows that”, said captain Alex Pietrangelo. “He’s got a hell of a shot”. I feel like we’ve been on the wrong side of those a lot throughout the years.
After tonight’s game, the series will shift to St. Louis for game three on Sunday and game four next Wednesday. He popped a high shot into the upper webbing of the net for his second goal of the series. Coyle actually sent a puck past Allen in the final flurry, but it came after the horn to punctuate the litany of near-misses for Minnesota.
Haula struggled to get off the ice and went right to the dressing room as boos rained down on Upshall and the officials. They had a good push there in the third period. So I don’t see why we can’t go in there and do the same thing to them that they did to us… They won the gold medal at the world championships last weekend. Former Blues left wing Chris Stewart tried to engage a few times with agitator Ryan Reaves, his close friend and fellow wedding groomsman. Allen has played in the net like a different person since then, with the best goals-against average (1.85) and save percentage (.938) in the National Hockey League over the 32-game balance of the season.
Joel Edmundson slowly skated away from the slot after his overtime victor for St. Louis, as if the 23-year-old defenseman had done this several times before.