ST. LOUIS (AP) — Devan Dubnyk had a strong bounce-back effort in goal and the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Friday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.
After allowing six goals in two periods in a 6-1 loss in Game 4, Dubnyk but made 36 saves in Game 5 and twice robbed Alexander Steen from close range in the second period.
The Wild scored three straight goals after Vladimir Tarasenko gave St. Louis the early edge with his playoff-leading sixth goal, including the fourth power-play tally of the series by one of the NHL’s weakest units in the regular season.
Nino Niederreiter scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Marco Scandella, Mikko Koivo and Charlie Coyle also scored for Minnesota. The Wild can wrap up the series at home in Game 6 on Sunday.
The Central Division champion Blues will be trying to avoid their third straight first-round elimination and bring the series back home for Game 7 on Wednesday night.
