Written by Joe Bouley at Hockey Wilderness.com
Early goals in this series have been killer. That same trend held true Minnesota’s 3-1 loss to the Blues in Game 3. St. Louis got on the board early and then they let Jake Allen take over.
And he did everything.
Outside of not stopping a Charlie Coyle shot, Allen thwarted the Wild’s insistence to dump-n-chase by acting like a third defenseman back in his zone. Oh, and he also made saves – a bunch of them. He turned away 40 shots in the win, while Devan Dubnyk at the other end allowed three goals on 31 shots. So much was made about Minnesota getting to the front of the net, but even when they do, Allen has just been too good to beat.
The first period was really the only period you needed to know how the rest of the game was going to go. Minnesota, a team that needed to be on the scoreboard first, was betrayed by their goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Colton Parayko’s shot at the top of the circles found twine over Dubnyk’s glove not even 4 minutes into the game. Ryan Suter wasn’t good on his gap. He wouldn’t be able to get away with that kind of gap on Tarasenko, and it should forgiven for giving that much up against a defenseman.
But the Wild were clearly rattled after the softy. Suter was forced into a hooking minor when he (hardy) put his stick on something called Zach Sanford. The following penalty kill was a mess. It was a lot of running around, few clears, and lots of good looks for the Blues, including a shot off the post. That said, Minnesota did kill the penalty.
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