There were plenty of questions and concerns surrounding the St. Louis Blues early in this post-season, trailing the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in their first-round playoff series.
Perhaps the Blues provided some answers as to what they are capable of this post-season, as they crushed the Wild by a final score of 6-1 to even the best-of-seven series at 2-2 on Wednesday.
Everything that could go wrong, went wrong for the Wild, which found itself down three goals just after the halfway mark of the first period. It started with Ryan Reaves, recording his first career playoff goal and point to get the Blues on the board, and continued with an absolutely stunning goal from Vladimir Tarasenko in the second period and Wild puck stopper Devan Dubnyk getting shaken up and then eventually pulled after allowing six goals.
The Blues entered this game in potential danger of going back to St. Louis facing elimination, and the possibility of another first-round playoff exit.
The scenario prompted St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon to write about how Wednesday’s meeting with the Wild was “one of those statement games” for the Blues.