Blues seemingly forget fundamentals in disconcerting Game 3 loss
The St. Louis Blues are rewriting a hockey cliche this postseason when it comes to the two-goal lead.
It's no longer the most dangerous in hockey. Instead, it's proving the most insurmountable.
After losing Game 1 4-2, the Blues spent almost half of Monday's Game 3 in Minnesota trailing by two goals before the Wild tacked on an empty-netter to make the final score 3-0.
The Blues have talked about their size advantage over the Wild, about how they're a good cycle team, about how they need to drive net traffic. On Monday, they seemed to forget all that, despite a chance to go up 2-1 in the series. At the end of the first period, they were outhit 16-10, outshot on goal 9-4 and even their faceoff prowess diminished, as the Wild managed 53 percent to the Blues' 47 percent. In the second period, it got worse -- they were outscored 2-0 as the Wild reaped the rewards of almost relentless rush attacks and pressure in the offensive zone.
It said something, meanwhile, about the Blues' offense when one of their best chances on goal had to come on their penalty kill, when, despite being a cycle team, they got their first real sustained offensive zone cycle with about seven minutes left in the first period.
"I think both teams recognize that there's a lot of desperation out there," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said Sunday before the team left for Minnesota. "I think, whoever can get more players involved in that type of attitude, I think, is gonna have more success."
On Monday, it was clear: The Wild wanted it more.
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• Offensive struggles. In Game 1, the Blues recorded their lowest shot-on-goal total -- 21 -- in a postseason game since May 3, 2012, when they faced the Los Angeles Kings. On Monday, they managed just 17. The Blues proved the best team in the NHL in the regular season when they outshot opponents; the only time they've managed to do so this postseason is Game 2, their sole win of the series.
• Coming up zero. The Blues failed to generate a single power play in Game 3. That indicates that the referees either missed some calls -- unlikely for a full 60 minutes -- or the Blues didn't play hard enough to pressure the Wild into committing minor stick infractions.
"When we're moving our feet in the O-zone, we're drawing penalties," Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo told Darren Pang on the FOX Sports Midwest postgame show when asked about the lack of shots on goal in the first, as well as the Blues' failure to produce power plays. "We should be drawing more penalties than we are right now. Start winning some more puck battles in the O-zone and the D-zone. We've gotta find ways to get pucks to the net."
• Goaltending. The highlight reel for the Blues on Monday primarily consisted of goaltender Jake Allen's saves. Sometimes, it was pure skill, like when he maneuvered behind a screen in the first to snatch a Matt Dumba-shot puck out of the air and keep the game scoreless. Occasionally, he got lucky, like when Wild forward Mikael Granlund missed a wide-open net in the second. In the end, he let in two goals -- one happened when, with Allen set up to defend toward his stick side, Zach Parise passed the puck to Jason Pominville, standing almost in the crease on Allen's glove side. On the other, Parise bobbled a pass, then regained it between Jay Bouwmeester's skates, and sent the puck whipping past Allen into the Blues' net.
You can follow Elisabeth Meinecke on Twitter at @lismeinecke or email her at ecmeinecke@gmail.com.
