The Minnesota Wild will host the St. Louis Blues in the first game of a best-of-seven as the 2017 NHL Playoffs begin. The Wild rebounded from struggling in March by winning five of their last six games and secured the second seed in their division. The Blues also overcame a late rough patch that could have kept them out of the playoffs, and they won six of their last eight contests. St. Louis has won five of the last seven meetings against Minnesota. Puck drop is scheduled for approximately 9:30 PM Eastern time and the contest can be seen on NBC Sports Network.
Blues (3rd Central, 46-29-7 overall, 22-17-2 away, 34-48 ATS)
St. Louis ended the regular season on a positive note by taking down the worst team in the NHL, Colorado, 3-2. The Blues broke the ice right at the end of the first period with a score by Zach Sanford. The Avalanche rebounded by scoring twice in the second period and taking the lead. However, St. Louis responded early in the final stanza with Vladimir Sobotka getting the tying goal at the 3:20 mark and then another Vladimir, his last name Tarasenko, punched in the game winner a little over a minute later. After both teams combined for just nine shots on goal, they had 52 combined in the last two periods.
Center Paul Stastny (40 pts) will not be in the contest on Wednesday night.
He's still recovering from a broken foot and hasn't played since March 21st. Right wing Nail Yakupov (9 pts) is questionable with an unknown injury after missing the last three games.
Wild (2nd Central, 49-25-8 overall, 27-12-2 home, 45-37 ATS)
Minnesota also finished their regular season against a team that won't be in the postseason.
They took down Arizona on the road, 3-1. They immediately went up 2-0 in the first 10:47 of the opening period. Erik Haula scored the first goal and Eric Staal complimented him while the team was on a power play. After a clean second period, Arizona finally got on the board early in the third period. However, at the 13:35 mark, Martin Hanzal took advantage of another power play and put the team back up by a comfortable two goals.
Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper is now 8-5-3 on the season and recorded 20 saves.
Defender Jared Spurgeon (38 pts) is listed as questionable for game one. He's dealing with a lower body injury that has kept him out of the last two games.
Betting on Blues and Wild
Minnesota is a heavy -170 favorite at home on the moneyline while St. Louis sits at +150. The home team is 4-1 in the last five meetings of this matchup.
