3 Keys: Blues at Wild, Game 2 of Western First Round

(3C) Blues at (2C) Wild
9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, TVAS2, BSN, BSWIX, BSMW
St. Louis leads best-of-7 series, 1-0

Marc-Andre Fleury will be the starting goalie for the Minnesota Wild against the St. Louis Blues in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday.
"Easy decision, really," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We debated going with Cam [Talbot] for sure. We've talked about it. But there was no goals [in Game 1] that were a direct result of Marc-Andre Fleury, that's for sure. He made first saves on all of them I think and had to make two or three after that.
"It's on us as a team to clear those rebounds, get pucks away from the net and get people away from the net. You look at the [Ryan O'Reilly] goal, there's like seven mistakes before it gets to him, so that's on us."
The Wild will make one change, inserting defenseman Alex Goligoski to replace Dmitry Kulikov, who was minus-2 in 15:50 of ice time Monday.
Fleury allowed four goals on 31 shots in Game 1. Two goals came on the power play and a third was scored two seconds after a Wild penalty expired.
Fleury, obtained in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 21, was 9-2-0 with a 2.74 goals-against average and .910 save percentage in 11 games after joining the Wild. He has had a sub-.900 save percentage in five of his past six games going back to the regular season.
Fleury has played 163 NHL postseason games (90-71), third-most all-time. He won the Stanley Cup three times with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009, 2016, 2017) and went to the Cup Final two more times, most recently with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in 2018.
Talbot, the No. 1 goalie throughout the season, gained at least a point in each of his last 16 regular-season starts (13-0-3). He was 32-12-4 with a 2.77 GAA, .911 save percentage and three shutouts in 49 games.
Teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 playoff series hold an all-time series record of 337-52 (.866), including 84-20 (.808) when starting the series on the road. The Blues are 20-12 when leading a playoff series 1-0, but 7-5 when those series start on the road. Minnesota is 2-9 when starting a series down 0-1 and has lost each of the three series in which it lost Game 1 at home, including against St. Louis in the first round of the 2017 postseason.
Here are 3 keys for Game 2:

1. Traffic jam

Ville Husso saved all 37 shots in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut Monday, but the Wild say they made it too easy on him.
While there was a high volume of shots, the shot quality could have been better and there needs to be a commitment to taking away Husso's line of sight and level of comfort in and around his crease.
"Everybody has to do a little bit more, a little bit getting to the net. Same old story line," Evason said. "Get to the net, screen the goalie, get rebounds. The [Blues] got rebounds, power plays, and we've got to find some of those as well."
The Blues were in and around Fleury's crease throughout Game 1, scoring three rebound goals, including one by David Perron in which Brandon Saad served as a screen.

2. Penalty phase

The Wild will need to make their mark on the power play if they hope to generate offense in this series, but it has not been easy.
They were 0-for-6 in Game 1 and expressed frustration at their inability to convert with the man-advantage. Minnesota was 1-for-9 on the power play in three regular-season games against St. Louis.
The Blues are playing a major part in the Wild's struggles.
"You have to block shots," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "We did a great job of that. You have to get in lanes. And it's about being aggressive in the structure of what you need to do, taking time and space away."
The Blues are relentless in killing in part because of the depth of their penalty-kill rotation; seven forwards and five defensemen each had 1:00 or more of shorthanded ice time in Game 1.

3. Defenseman dilemma

Nick Leddy will be a game-time decision for Game 2. The defenseman did not take part in the morning skate and defenseman Niko Mikkola took his spot on the top pair with Colton Parayko.
He played 22:22 in Game 1.
Calle Rosen, who did not play in Game 1, will enter the lineup if Leddy can't play.
Mikkola played with Parayko occasionally during the regular season.

Blues projected lineups

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

Wild projected lineups

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
Jake 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

Status report

If Rosen plays, it would be his first NHL postseason game.