The hockey hangover from the overtime thriller between the Wild and Blues would be worse if Minnesota hadn’t completely dominated the Blues from start to finish.
Jake Allen, who the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described as “extraterrestrial” and “superhuman,” was a show stopper and Wild killer in Game 1. His 51 saves were often routine and occasionally spectacular.
But the reality is that Allen is the only reason the Blues won Game 1.
“He obviously played well, you don’t need me to tell you that,” said Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk. “I think some crazy bounces, a little bit of puck luck and the puck finds the back of the net. You watch some of the replays it’s pretty crazy it took us 59 and a half minutes to get one in there. But he played well and it’s gonna be on us to continue to challenge him that way.”
“If they play like this again, they’ll lose,” writes St. Louis columnist Benjamin Hochman, while adding that “Minnesota played the second and third periods like it was on a 40-minute power play.”
Allen played like he was a hybrid combination of Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur, who just so happens to be his goalie coach in St. Louis.
Yeo after 2-1 overtime win: "We're not kidding ourselves – we know we have to play better." pic.twitter.com/pnXNOfMQfx
— Benjamin Hochman (@hochman) April 13, 2017
“I think we know that we have to be better,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said, according to TSN. “That’s the thing: We can’t just rely on Jake to have a performance like that.”
Game 2 is Friday night at 7 p.m. in St. Paul.
