The Boston Bruins escaped elimination to start the weekend, but three other teams could not avoid a fourth opening-series loss on Saturday, as both the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers clinched trips to the second round of the playoffs with victories against the Minnesota Wild and Montreal Canadiens, respectively.

Late on Saturday, the Edmonton Oilers also captured a 4-2 series victory Saturday in another Pacific Division showdown against the San Jose Sharks, riding an early two-goal burst to a 3-1 victory. Next: a best-of-7 with the Anaheim Ducks. (Washington and Ottawa can wrap up their first-round series on Sunday.)

With St. Louis, New York and Edmonton locked in as the fourth, fifth and sixth teams to secure second-round spots, here are a few takeaways from an unfolding playoff picture:

Jake Allen owned the Wild exactly when he needed to

Minnesota certainly wasn't without effort on Saturday night in desperation mode, even after Eric Staal's departure from this scary run-in with the boards:

But the hero of this series was very clearly Mr. Allen, whose opening-game overtime performance set the tone for the series right out of the gate. Zach Parise helped Minnesota keep Blues fans on the edge of their seats at one point, but three consecutive 2-1 St. Louis decisions, fueled by Allen's 174 combined saves, hardly had the Wild looking like the Western Conference elites they once appeared to be.

The Wild's Devan Dubnyk lived up to expectations with a Game 4 shutout but was otherwise outplayed by Allen, whose sturdiness in the net came in overtime once again on Saturday.

Henrik Lundqvist was the man in clutch time

Notice a theme here? Lundqvist has the advantage over the Blues' Allen when it comes to pure name recognition, but he still backed up his notoriety with production for the Rangers during a 3-1 series-winning victory on Saturday, which -- believe it or not -- came right at Madison Square Garden.

Lundqvist's 31-save shutout to open the anticipated matchup with the Canadiens was, like Allen's overtime outing for St. Louis, a tone setter -- even if New York was up and down and often unpredictable during stretches of this Eastern Conference bout. And his biggest contributions came in clutch time, like when this quick-footed save protected New York's one-goal lead for more than 20 minutes against the Habs:

The Rangers are better off than the Blues in Round 2

In a little peek ahead, it's probably safe to say that, of Saturday's early winners, Lundqvist and the Rangers face the easier road ahead. Even if St. Louis, outshot and outmatched by the Wild, had a more balanced road to victory than New York in the opening round.

Easier road ahead, of course, refers not to, say, a future matchup with someone like the Pittsburgh Penguins but rather what lies immediately ahead in the second round. And in the Rangers' case, that means either the Ottawa Senators or Boston Bruins. The Blues, meanwhile, will be forced to take on a Nashville Predators team that's resting up after a stunning rout of the Western Conference favorite Chicago Blackhawks.

Jake Allen better be ready to bring his top stuff once again.

The Oilers need to be more consistent and disciplined vs. Anaheim

The Ducks have been waiting to see which divisional foe they will face in the second round, and now they know. Perhaps San Jose would have been the preferred opponent only because of Edmonton's offensive firepower (then again, after Game 4 of the Sharks-Oilers series, maybe not), but the important thing to note going forward is that the Oilers need more consistency.

That starts with discipline. Penalties were a big stumbling block for the Oilers, especially after they allowed a barrage of power-play goals in Game 4, and they at least partially had Edmonton fans uneasy watching their team try to hold an early 2-0 lead in Game 6 on Saturday night.

Couple the discipline issues with the fact that Edmonton, complete with 100-point man Connor McDavid, entered Game 6 having scored only five goals in its previous four games, and you can see why the team is in need of a boost for its impending showdown with the Ducks. There certainly can't be many more monumental slipups like the Oilers' 7-0 loss to San Jose in Game 4 if McDavid and Co. are serious about making a run at the Cup.