3 Keys: Wild at Blues, Game 3 of Western First Round

(C2) Wild at (C3) Blues
9:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SN360, TVAS2, BSMW, BSN, BSWIX
Best-of-7 series tied 1-1

The St. Louis Blues will be without defensemen Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo for Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round against the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center on Friday.
Leddy sustained an upper-body injury during the Blues' 4-0 victory in Game 1 on Monday and did not play in Game 2 on Wednesday. He was replaced by Calle Rosen, who was a minus-2 with one shot on goal in 16:34 of ice time.
Bortuzzo sustained an upper-body injury blocking a shot in the first period of the Blues' 6-2 loss in Game 2.
Steven Santini most likely will replace Bortuzzo in the lineup, although Marco Scandella is a possibility.
Scandella missed the final game of the regular season and the first two games of this series because of a lower-body injury sustained April 26. Santini, an emergency recall from Springfield of the American Hockey League, last played in the NHL with the Blues during the 2020-21 season, including two games in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He scored 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) in 66 AHL games this season.
Blues coach Craig Berube said each of his top three defensemen -- Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and Torey Krug -- will play major minutes and he will try to shelter the other three as much as possible with St. Louis having the last line change as the home team.
"You're at home, you've got to do a good job there with your matchups," Berube said. "Faulk, Krug and Parayko, they're going to get a lot of ice time. You've got to mix and match and get the right people on the ice against certain people. There's not much more you can do other than that. They need to play."
Forward Dakota Joshua is expected to replace Nathan Walker on the fourth line. Joshua will be making his NHL postseason debut. He scored eight points (three goals, five assists) in 30 games during the regular season.
The Wild will go with the same lineup from the first two games.
When a best-of-7 series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 227-110 (.675), including 4-3 in the 2021 playoffs.
Here are 3 keys for Game 3:

1. Home cooking

The Blues have won seven straight against the Wild at Enterprise Center, outscoring them 35-15.
That's a huge advantage, considering all that is at stake in Game 3. Teams that take a 2-1 lead in a best-of-7 series are 369-158 (.700), including 7-4 in the 2021 playoffs.
"We all know we're going to come out hard and physical so that's what usually happens." Blues forward Ivan Barbashev said. "But we have to keep our emotions in check. Can't be too pumped up. Just really excited for the game tonight."

2. Paint job

The Blues say they need to do a better job of getting traffic around the crease of Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 3. They did so in Game 1 to great effect, scoring three rebound goals. The traffic was not as prevalent in Game 2, and the offense suffered as a result.
It won't be easy to post up in the slot and around the crease, though, because the Wild also saw what a difference keeping that area clean and clear meant.
"It just means we were doing our job, whether that means boxing out or clearing the crease," Minnesota defenseman Jake Middleton said. "We kept it between the whistles this last game. We didn't get into the stuff after the whistles and that is working for us."

3. No doubting Thomas

The line of Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Vladimir Tarasenko was huge for the Blues during the regular season.
But in the first two game of the playoffs, that line has scored one goal, by Tarasenko in the third period of Game 2. Thomas and Tarasenko each had an assist on Jordan Kyrou's power-play goal in the second period of that game, and Buchnevich was on the ice.
St. Louis expects more from that line and thinks it is coming.
"They did more things with the puck and on the rush, made some plays, and then on the power play they got a goal, which was good to see," Berube said. "They need to continue to use their speed and their ability to make plays. I'll say it again, we need to get to the inside of the ice more and go to the hard areas."
Buchnevich was even more confident, predicting two goals for Tarasenko in Game 3.
"He's going to score like he scored last game," Buchnevich said. "He got the crossbar [in Game 2]. I feel today like it's going to be a couple."

Wild projected lineup

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello
Kevin Fiala -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Matt Boldy
Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Marcus Foligno
Nicolas Deslauriers -- Tyson Jost -- Brandon Duhaime
Jacob Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill -- Alex Goligoski
Marc-Andre Fleury
Cam Talbot
Scratched:Nick Bjugstad, Connor Dewar, Dmitry Kulikov, Jordie Benn
Injured:None

Blues projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Ivan Barbashev -- Brayden Schenn -- Jordan Kyrou
Dakota Joshua -- Tyler Bozak -- Alexey Toropchenko
Niko Mikkola -- Colton Parayko
Torey Krug -- Justin Faulk
Calle Rosen -- Steven Santini
Ville Husso
Jordan Binnington
Scratched:Logan Brown, Nathan Walker
Injured:Nick Leddy (undisclosed), Marco Scandella (lower body), Robert Bortuzzo (upper body), Mackenzie MacEachern (upper body), Scott Perunovich (wrist)

Status report

Fleury will start for the third straight game. He did that once during the regular season with the Wild (April 22-26). ... Scandella, a defenseman, will be a game-time decision.