Wild vs. Blues recap: What you need to know about Game 5
Every night during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Eye On Hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters will bring you up to speed everything you need to know about all of the action around the NHL. Here's what you need to know about Blues-Wild, Game 5.
By
Chris Peters
•
2 min read
Minnesota Wild at St. Louis Blues, Game 5
Wild 4, Blues 1 | Wild lead series 3-2 | Game 6 Sunday
Game 5 in a nutshell: The Wild and Devan Dubnyk bounced back in a big way after an embarrassing Game 4 to push the Blues to the brink of elimination. Minnesota pulled away in the second half of the second period with a pair of quick strikes following some great saves from Dubnyk. Despite out-shooting Minnesota 37-19, the Blues couldn't break through and didn't get the saves they needed from Jake Allen. Now they're headed back to Minnesota facing another early exit.
Turning point: Devan Dubnyk's desperation save on Alexander Steen in the second period kept the score 1-1 and opened the door for the Wild to turn the game around. After a great shift by Steen in which he forced a turnover to start the play, David Backes found Steen alone in front of the Wild net. Jared Spurgeon got there as Steen struggled to corral the puck. That forced the Blues forward to have to hold his shot. Dubnyk got over and stuck his leg out to thwart Steen. Minutes later, the Wild scored twice over a 1:26 span to open up a 3-1 lead and suck the life from the building.
Three things we learned
1. Devan Dubnyk is resilient. Simply put, he was terrible in Game 4. Nothing went right for him. In Game 5, he looked like the Vezina finalist that he is. These series can flip in an instant, so it is important to have a short memory. There were no ill effects when the Wild netminder took his place between the pipes in St. Louis Friday night. He made 36 saves, including the huge on on Steen in the second period, to make sure his team had a chance despite being vastly out-shot.
2. Wild head coach Mike Yeo deserves a lot of credit for what he hass done with this team in this series. Regrouping from such an ugly loss and responding with a win like this has a lot to do with the players, but the coach has to make sure the team is prepared. Yeo's adjustments in the game paid off as well. He moved some lines around, namely putting Nino Niederreiter with Mikko Koivu and Chris Stewart, and getting Jason Zucker with Charlie Coyle and Thomas Vanek. Niederreiter scored the go-ahead goal assisted by Stewart and Coyle scored the fourth with Zucker providing the screen. Those are such subtle moves, but they immediately paid off.
3. The Blues are facing the prospects of an early postseason exit again. Now just one loss away from a third consecutive first-round exit with arguably the best roster they've had in St. Louis since the Chris Pronger-Al MacInnis era, the pressure is on. It's on head coach Ken Hitchcock, it's on the core players that have been through this before and it's on big-money additions like Paul Stastny. They know what it means. Dropping this series would be shattering. Now the pressure is on and it is extremely unclear if this team can overcome it. They also may have to make a change in net after Jake Allen's struggles in Game 5. We'll find out what this team is really made of Sunday.
Video of the game: Dubnyk's save on Steen was the key play of the game. Spurgeon's recovery helped make it possible, but Dubnyk getting a pad on this one kept the game tied and was further proof that he was back to himself after such a dreadful Game 4.
