3 Keys: Blues at Wild, Game 5 of Western First Round

(3C) Blues at (2C) Wild
9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, TVAS2, BSN, BSWIX, BSMW
Best-of-7 series tied 2-2

The St. Louis Blues will be close to full strength for Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.
Defensemen Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo are expected to return to the lineup. Leddy has missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury sustained during Game 1. Bortuzzo sustained an upper-body injury during Game 2 while blocking a shot.
"They got good experience back there," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "They're veteran guys that have played a lot of playoff games and have been around. Those guys are good players for us. We miss them when they are out."
RELATED: [Complete Wild vs. Blues series coverage]
The Blues still are missing defensemen Torey Krug, who sustained a lower-body injury during Game 3, and Marco Scandella, who sustained a lower-body injury during Game 4.
Goalie Jordan Binnington is expected start for the second straight game for the Blues. He made 28 saves in Game 4 in his first game of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The return of the two veteran defensemen allows the Blues to resettle their defense pairs a bit after Game 4, which saw defensemen Colton Parayko and Justin Faulk each play more than 30 minutes because of the in-game injury to Scandella and limited ice time given to Steven Santini and Scott Perunovich, each of whom was making their debut in this series.
The Blues likely will play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second straight game. That allows Perunovich to remain in the lineup and run the power play in place of Krug and allows for depth in case of injury.
"I've done it quite a bit this year," Berube said of using 11 forwards and seven defensemen. "On my end I get one of the top forwards a little extra ice time with that [fourth] line and they like it and I don't mind. On the back end it is a little tougher for [assistant coach] Mike [Van Ryn] with the need to find ice time for guys."
The Wild do not appear to be making any changes to the lineup they have used for each of the past three games.
Teams that win Game 5 when a series is tied 2-2 hold an all-time series record of 219-58 (.791), including a 6-0 record in the 2021 playoffs.
Here are 3 keys for Game 5:

1. High stakes

Each team knows Game 5 is of the utmost importance and that a quick start could determine who has the upper hand.
"The energy will be there in the building," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "The energy will be with both teams clearly."
The team that has scored first in each game of this series has gone on to win that game. So whoever can harness that energy more Tuesday will have the upper hand.

2. Depth charge

The Blues have scored 12 goals in the first four games of the series, but they have come from four forwards.
David Perron has scored five, Ryan O'Reilly and Jordan Kyrou each has scored three, and Vladimir Tarasenko has scored one.
The Blues would like to see their offense become more diversified; they led the NHL with nine 20-goal scorers during the regular season. Rediscovering that output was one reason the Blues mixed up the forward lines for Game 4.
"We always want guys to be able to score goals but that is not the way it works all the time," Berube said. "You just have to play; you have to stay with it. You can't get frustrated that you are not producing and not scoring.
"You have to play a 200-foot game no matter what. You have to make sure you are checking well and doing all the right things."

3. Match game

Want to find the likely winner of Game 5? Look no further than the way Joel Eriksson Ek of the Wild and the Blues' O'Reilly are faring.
In Game 1, O'Reilly had a goal and an assist and was plus-2, while Eriksson Ek did not have a point in the Blues' 4-0 victory. In Game 2, O'Reilly did not have a point and was minus-3 while Eriksson Ek had two goals, an assist and was plus-3 in a 6-2 Wild win. Eriksson Ek had a goal and an assist and was plus-2 in the Wild's 5-1 win in Game 3, while O'Reilly scored a goal but was minus-2. In Game 4, O'Reilly had a goal and two assists and was plus-3 in the Blues' 5-2 win to even the series, while Eriksson Ek did not have a point and was minus-2.

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
Nick Leddy -- Colton Parayko
Calle Rosen -- Justin Faulk
Niko Mikkola -- Robert Bortuzzo
Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Ville Husso
Scratched:Dakota Joshua, Logan Brown, Nathan Walker, Steven Santini
Injured: Marco Scandella (lower body), Torey Krug (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 -- Mathew Dumba
Jon Merrill -- Alex Goligoski
Marc-Andre Fleury
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Nick Bjugstad, Connor Dewar, Dmitry Kulikov, Jordie Benn
Injured: None

Status report

If the Blues opt to use 12 forwards and six defensemen, it's likely Brown would come in. … St. Louis assigned forward
Mackenzie MacEachern
to Springfield of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment. He's been out since April 9 because of an upper-body injury.