Yes, the Minnesota Wild outplayed St. Louis Wednesday night, but in the end they lost!
So that means Game 2 is now a must win for the Wild, if they don’t want to fall down 0-2 in their best-of-seven series with the Blues.
How important is it to stop that from happening? Pretty darn important.
The Pioneer Press notes that teams who trail 0-2 come back to win the series just 12.7 percent of the time. While teams that battle back to tie it at 1 – win them 52.1 percent of the time.
That’s a pretty big difference.
Despite the loss, the Wild seem confident heading into Friday night’s Game 2.
“We keep plugging away like we did and doing those things and getting pucks to the net and getting more bodies in front, we know it’s going to be one of those garbage type goals and we’re going to put more in next time,” said Wild forward Charlie Coyle at practice Thursday.
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters Thursday they are ticked off.
“Which is what you want them to be,” said Boudreau. “I don’t think they were woe is me type thing.”
Boudreau added that he felt like they played a pretty good game, things just didn’t go their way. The Wild set a franchise-playoff single-game record by peppering St. Louis goaltender Jake Allen with 52 shots on goal.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. Friday night at the Xcel Energy Center.
