Jordan Binnington made 25 saves and the Saint Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Thursday night to win the series in six games and advance to the second round in the West.
Nick Leddy gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with 5:01 remaining in the first period. This is the first goal for a Blues defender in this series.
Binnington helped his side cope with the difficult first period. He declined several scoring opportunities from Wild. He also received help from his post with a shot from Marcus Foligno.
Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the second period.
Colton Parayko completed the scoring for the Blues with an empty net. David Perron got two assists.
Matt Dumba was the lone scorer for the Wild, hitting the post three times, including two in the third period.
After losing the last two games and facing elimination, Wild head coach Dean Evason turned to Cam Talbot as the starting goaltender in place of Marc-André Fleury. He finished the season with a 13-0-3 record.
Talbot stopped for 22 pucks.
The Blues won their first series since beating the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2019.
They went to Colorado to face the Avalanche. The date and time of the first duel are still unknown.
Source: Radio-Canada
