There will not be a Game 7 Saturday in St. Paul.
Cam Talbot was not the answer for the Minnesota Wild, who benched Marc-Andre Fleury to give Talbot a shot after Fleury started the first five games of the playoff series. The Blues ate Talbot and a dismal Wild penalty kill alive en route to a 5-1 win to clinch the best-of-seven series 4 games to 2.
The Wild have not gotten out of the first round since 2015, getting dumped in the opening round by the Stars (2016), Blues (2017), Jets (2018), Golden Knights (2021) and now the Blues, not to mention losing in the COVID-shortened qualifying round in 2020.
Talbot appeared to have a clear view of a puck that sizzled by him when Nick Leddy skated between five Wild players and scored the first goal of the game late in the first period. It didn’t look good then, and it looked worse when the Wild melted down in the second period.
A power-play goal by Ryan O’Reilly made it 2-0 Blues. One second shy of four minutes later, Tyler Bozak scored. 3-0 Blues. Then with 1:24 to go and the Blues on another power play after a bad holding penalty on Tyler Jost, Vladimir Tarasenko scored to make it 4-0.
Minnesota was outshot 22-4 in the second period.
Matt Dumba scored in the third to keep Minnesota from being shutout, but they otherwise couldn’t get the puck by Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, who stopped 25 of 26 shots.
Talbot stopped 22 of 26 shots.
An empty-net goal by Colton Parayko made it 5-1 St. Louis late in the third.
The Blues will face the Colorado Avalanche in the next round of the playoffs.
