St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild Game 5 Preview
Where: Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, MN
When: Saturday, April 22, 2017, 3:00 PM ET
Line: St. Louis Blues at Minnesota Wild – view all NHL lines
TV Broadcast: NBC
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Betting on the St. Louis Blues
Denied of a series sweep, the St. Louis Blues will have to wait another day to try and eliminate the Minnesota Wild from the playoffs.
The Blues were shutout by the Wild on Wednesday, 2-0, yet they still have a commanding 3-1 series lead at hand. Although the final score in Game 4 appears to be a convincing victory for the visiting Wild, the home team was really up-to-par with them in almost all facets of the contest.
St. Louis finished dead-even with Minnesota in shots taken (28) and takeaways (six) during the loss. The team also won one more faceoff battle, had a 7-2 advantage on takeaways and landed six more hits than the Wild did.
Goalie Jake Allen had a sound outing himself, making 26 saves on the evening. The two goals Allen allowed in Game 4 is a bit of a concern, but he has still managed to stop all but three of Minnesota’s 117 shots taken in the series.
Consdering the Blues were third in the regular season on penalty kill (84.8 percent) and have allowed just one power-play goal in 12 opportunities from Minnesota, there’s no reason to panic just yet. They’ve even won three-straight games and took four of six meetings against the Wild at the Gopher State this entire season.
Betting on the Minnesota Wild
At last, the Minnesota Wild showed some life in their best-of-seven series, which they were already on the verge of a humbling sweep.
Wednesday’s clash saw Devan Dubnyk make 28 saves for Minnesota for his second-career playoff shutout. It was Dubnyk’s first shutout win since December 20 and his sixth of the 2016-17 season. He had held five teams scoreless prior to that mid-December contest, but failed to register another shutout until Game 4.
Dubnyk can certainly carry his team on his back in the playoffs if he rediscover his stellar form from the first half of the regular season. The Wild’s offense finally got a spark as well this Wednesday, with Charlie Coyle scoring the first goal of the contest for his second goal in as many games.
Then again, Minny will need its top producers to be more active in the days ahead, as Zach Parise saw his three-game point streak come to an end in Game 4 and with Nino Niederrieter – a team-best eight power-play goals in the regular season – unable to tally a point in the first round yet.
Similar to the Blues, the Wild have only managed to score one goal with the upper hand in 12 opportunities this entire series. Still, it’s worth noting that they were also ninth in the regular season with a power-play conversion rate of 21.3 percent, so we might see an uptick in goal production in Game 5 this Saturday once the likes of Parise and Niederrieter get into their grooves.
Writer’s Prediction
The Blues close out the series in five games with a 3-2 win in overtime.
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