Rd 1 Gm 2 @ Wild | 8:30 pm CT | ESPN, BSMW 101 ESPN

[theohall]

BSMW available for those in regional viewing areas. ESPN broadcasts are available on ESPN+ immediately following the live broadcast, so I'm not as ticked about the start time overlap thing now.

Ville Husso made his Stanley Cup Playoffs entrance as noteworthy as he possibly could have. By becoming the first goaltender in franchise history to record a shutout in his postseason debut, Husso made 37 saves in an electric outing as the Blues defeated the Wild to open the first-round series.

"I saw how hard (Husso) worked, how passionate he is for the game - you're happy for guys that earn everything they have, and he's certainly done that," David Perron said of his goaltender's preparation for this moment. "We're extremely proud of him, we want him to keep going it's good to get that first win out of the way for him."

In addition to Husso's sensational performance, Perron put on a display of his own. After missing the 2021 Playoffs due to COVID-19, Perron was eager to lace up for his team this year, scoring his first career postseason hat trick to steamroll over the Wild on the road.

The Blues dominated the special teams battle, converting on two power plays while also holding Minnesota scoreless on all six of their power-play opportunities. If whistles begin to lessen, the Blues will need to make sure their even-strength attack is focused and aggressive as the series continues.

Game 2 is Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. CT.

NOTEWORTHY STATS
-Including Game 1, the Blues have won six straight games against Minnesota, going 10-0-1 in their last 11 matchups.

-In a best-of-7 series all-time, the Blues are 20-12 (.625) when leading 1-0 and 7-5 (.583) when leading 1-0 starting on the road. In League history, the team that grabs Game 1 wins the first round 68.6 percent of the time (499-228).

-Since the NHL Trade Deadline (March 21), the Blues are a League-best 10-1-1 on the road (including the Game 1 win).

THEY SAID IT
"Guys make it pretty easy for me. Shots coming from outside, blocking shots - I think the penalty kill was at its best of the season. It's really nice for my first playoff game that we were ready right away." - Blues goaltender Ville Husso after winning Game 1

"(The Blues) are not a team that shoots a lot of pucks. Sometimes they have a clear lane and they're still waiting to make the extra pass across the crease. I think that's what makes them good, especially on the power play." - Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury after Game 1

BLUE NOTES
Ivan Barbashev attempted the third penalty shot in postseason franchise history, but was unsuccessful. Vladimir Tarasenko owns the only successful postseason penalty shot attempt in franchise history against San Jose in the 2019 Western Conference Final... Perron became the 14th player in franchise history to record a postseason hat trick and the first to do so in the opening game of the playoffs... Tarasenko leads the Blues with 35 career postseason goals, sharing second on the all-time franchise list with Bernie Federko (1. Brett Hull, 67)... Nick Leddy has appeared in 122 career playoff games, the most of any Blue.

The St. Louis Blues will try to continue their dominance of the Minnesota Wild when the teams meet Wednesday in Saint Paul, Minn., for Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

Though the Wild outshot the Blues by a 37-31 margin in Monday's series opener, St. Louis earned a 4-0 win due to strong special teams play and a big performance from second-year goaltender Ville Husso. Husso became the first Blues goalie to ever deliver a shutout in his postseason debut.

Husso deflected credit, saying his teammates "made it pretty easy for me" by blocking shots and forcing the Wild into a number of off-target scoring attempts. In addition, the Blues were a perfect 6-for-6 against Minnesota's power play.

"Today I think the penalty kill was the best of the season. ... It's really nice for (our) first playoff game, and we were right away ready," Husso said.

St. Louis had six power-play chances of its own in a penalty-filled game, with David Perron twice scoring with the extra attacker. Perron then completed the hat trick with a marker at 12:34 of the third period, just two seconds after a Minnesota penalty had expired.

The Blues finished second in power-play percentage and fifth in penalty-kill percentage during the regular season, the only team in the NHL to rank in the top five in both categories. Monday's game underlined the Blues' big advantage on special teams, considering the Wild ranked only 18th on the power play and 25th in killing penalties.

"We just have to stay out of the box," said Wild forward Kevin Fiala, who had six penalty minutes. "We don't want to challenge them (on the power play) ... I think it's just we have a better chance to win the games if it's five-on-five."

Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek led the Wild with five shots apiece in Game 1. Eriksson Ek was also one of three Minnesota players (along with Matt Boldy and Jake Middleton) to hit the goalpost on shots during the first two periods.

The normally high-scoring Wild finished fifth in the NHL in goals and were shut out only once during the regular season.

Game 1's result extended the Blues' recent control of the rivalry. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, St. Louis is 12-1-1 in 14 regular-season games against Minnesota.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 of 31 shots for the Wild in Game 1, looking solid despite facing so many Blues power plays. It could be enough to merit another start Wednesday, though Minnesota has another quality goaltending option in Cam Talbot.

After missing last season's playoffs due to COVID-19 protocol, Perron returned to the postseason with a flourish by recording three goals and an assist. Perron had never collected more than two points in any of his 92 previous playoff games, and the four points tied Perron's personal best in the NHL, achieved six times over his 973 regular-season games.

Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist in Game 1. The winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy during the Blues' Stanley Cup run in the 2019 playoffs, O'Reilly has 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) over 40 postseason games with St. Louis.

[theohall]

While the Wild did have more offensive zone time at 5-on-5, it seemed every time the Blues 4th line got on the ice, that shifted. With all of the penalties, the Blues 4th line simply didn't play enough given Toropchenko and Walker barely went over 7 minutes of ice time and that included power play time at the end of the game. What the Blues did do - kept the Wild to the outside mostly at 5-on-5. Keep that up, stay out of the box, and IMO, the Blues even strength play will get better. The Wild were one of the most penalized teams in the NHL, so I don't see them being capable of staying out of the box. Stay disciplined and the Blues should dominate again. Yes, the stay disciplined thing applies to both teams, but that most penalized team thing - only 2 teams in the playoffs had more PIM/Gm than the Wild - Nashville and Tampa. Only 2 teams had fewer PIM/Gm than the Blues - Pittsburgh and Dallas. Just keep playing the way that got them there.

It's pretty darn clear David Perron is on a mission to prove how good he can be in the playoffs with the way he controlled the puck in the o-zone the last game. Hope to see that continue, because the Wild simply couldn't handle him.

[Portland Blues]

And we're two minutes from broadcast time on ESPN and there's still 15 minutes to go in the Carolina Boston game. Frank you ESPN.

[Portland Blues]

Well, that was not an ideal first period.

[Portland Blues]

Oof.

[theohall]

Blues dominated offensive zone time in this game. It was pretty much the reverse of Game 1 including the result. Wild dominated o-zone time, Blues capitalized on power plays. Tonight - Blues dominated offensive zone time, Wild capitalized on 2 turnovers and 2 power plays.

As to the Wild, I'm not that worried for multiple reasons. Yeah, the Wild scored the first 4 goals off of 1) a broken stick - which is a straight up hockey gods type break 2) a really bad penalty call on Faulk. Let me grab the opponents stick, pull it towards may face, and throw my head back. BS call. 3) another really bad call on Faulk. A dude losing his stick with one hand on it when stick checked is not slashing. BS call 4) A really bad turnover by Tarasenko. That's 4 goals the Wild normally don't have. If the game just had the actual penalties called - the game likely would've been 2-2 in the 3rd, instead of the 4-2 game which put the Blues in an attack mode that led to the 5th goal and the empty netter.

More on officiating - those knee on knee hits on Mikkola - both of them - how in the heck weren't those penalties?? And one of them was by Spurgeon - which is two injury type actions in back-to-back games by him. He's got it coming moving forward.

Blues keep playing the way they did in this game and the wins will come. Husso didn't really do anything wrong in this game either considering where the goals came from even with the Wild scoring 5 on him.

Worries - How serious is Bortuzzo's injury, because the Blues depth at RD isn't much. Parayko didn't seem like he had his legs and it wasn't from increased ice time. He played just over 24 minutes in both games. I hope he doesn't have some lingering injury we don't know about. The reason for the concern - on the 5th goal he seemed really slow getting back. Considering Mikkola was behind the Wild net at one point before the puck was turned over and beat Parayko back to the defensive zone. Krug and Rosen picked up the extra ice time once Bortuzzo went down. On the Blues RD depth - we do NOT want to see Luke Witkowski. Yes, he's a physical defenseman, but he's a penalty machine who doesn't know when to back off, which will be important vs the Wild. Kind of weird saying that, because it happened in games when he was with the Lightning, yet he was the Captain of the Syracuse Crunch twice. Maybe Berube can rein him in. Santini might be okay. Unfortunately, I don't think Matt Kessel is eligible being on a amateur tryout contract with Springfield and his ELC not starting until next season.