St. Louis Blues V/s Minnesota Wild
Perron scored a hat trick – Forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan leads the way with four points, while goaltender Tyler Parsons makes 37 saves in a 4-0 victory for the opening round of the Western Conference First Round.
How did the game go?
On Wednesday, the St. Louis Blues are off to a strong start in their first-round series against the Minnesota Wild after a 5-1 victory in Game 1.
Both teams were scoreless in the first period before the Blues scored four goals in the second period.
Kevin Shattenkirk, Jori Lehtera, Dmitrij Jaskin and Vladimir Tarasenko scored for the Blues.
“Of course, it’s nice to win,” Husso said. “Before I was a little nervous, as usual, but the game started well.
Killing as punishment was unrealistic. Most of the play was good (2 out of 6), so it was a big win.”
Ryan O’Reilly scored a goal and provided an assist for St. Louis, and number 1, Tory Krug, provided three assists.
Match 2 will be played here on Wednesday. “If they score the first goal today, it will probably be different. In the playoffs, it is essential to score the first goal. We need to move on and prepare for the next one.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for the Wilds. “This is our season,” said Minnesota manager Dean Evason. “Our special teams were not very good.
Perron scored in a power play at 6:15 of the first period with a direct hit on the stick to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. The goal came after Fleury saved a penalty on Ivan Barbashev at 3:50. Barbashev was captivated by wild defender Jonas Brodin in a short-handed situation. O’Reilly went 2-0 with 15:56 on the rebound. “If you make a save, it’s a good way to get into the game early,” Fleury said.
“I thought we were off to a good start. The team skated well, and we had a lot of pucks. I wanted to make a save and keep the momentum going for us. The crowd stood up and everything, just a disgrace to the rest of the game.” Perron scored on the powerplay from a 3–0 shot from Braden Schenn at 16:30 of the second period, then completed a hat-trick at 12:34 of the third period on the rebound from the left faceoff circle for a 4–0 final.
He became the first player in Blues history to score a hat-trick in Game 1 of the playoffs. “Yes, after all these years, it’s a long way to go for many reasons, in many ways, so obviously, I’m proud of it,” Perron said. I am very proud to wear the Blue Note, and yes, I will keep it that way.”
Husso made 14 saves in each of the first two periods and nine in the third to keep the close. “Husso made some good saves,” said ferocious striker Kevin Fiala.
“You can’t say we didn’t try. We’re 5-to-5 and in the majority. We hit the crossbar, don’t know how many times (three) we hit today; it could go the other way and look different.” Now We must let him go.
This is game 1, and this is playoff hockey. We need to be ready for the next one.” NOTES: O’Reilly has led the Blues with 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) in the playoffs since joining them in 2018-19. The regular season included St. Louis winning eight in a row against Minnesota.