The Minnesota Wild took Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals in St. Louis on Thursday night, beating the Blues 4-2.
Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville scored empty net goals in the final 1:13 to put the game out of reach, and the Wild took the 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Zach Parise added a pair of assists for the Wild and Devan Dubnyk took care of the rest stopping 19 shots in his first playoff start.
Jason Zucker helped the Wild grab the early momentum, when he broke free off a line change to net this terrific goal.
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2nd career playoff goal in Zucker, who missed all of last year's playoffs with a knee injury
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 17, 2015
In the second period, the Wild added to the lead on Matt Dumba’s first career playoff goal. Dumba’s slap shot sailed past St. Louis goaltender Jake Allen to make it 2-0.
The Blues made it interesting in the third. Jaden Schwartz scored on a wrist shot to cut the Wild’s lead to one.
Granlund’s empty-netter gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead, but it only lasted for a few seconds as Alexander Steen scored short handed with 58 seconds left. Seconds later Pominville answered to put the game away.
The series continues in St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.
Scoring Summary
1st period: 2:47 MIN – Jason Zucker (1) Wrap-around – Assist: Justin Fontaine (1) 1-0 MIN
2nd period: 4:10 MIN PPG – Matt Dumba (1) Slap shot – Assist: Jared Spurgeon (1), Nino Niederreiter (1) 2-0 MIN
3rd period: 7:12 STL – Jaden Schwartz (1) Wrist shot – Assist: Kevin Shattenkirk (1), Patrik Berglund (1) 2-1 MIN
3rd period: 18:47 MIN EN – Mikael Granlund (1) Wrist shot – Assist: Zach Parise (1) 3-1 MIN
3rd period: 19:01 STL SHG – Alexander Steen (1) Wrist shot – Assist: Vladimir Tarasenko (1), Shattenkirk (2) 3-2 MIN
3rd period: 19:40 MIN PPG EN – Jason Pominville (1) Wrist shot – Assist: Parise (2) 4-2 MIN
