Blues defeat Wild in Game 2 on Jaden Schwartz goal

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jaden Schwartz scored with 2:27 left in the third period to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round at Xcel Energy Center on Friday.
The Blues, who took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series with their second 2-1 road win, host Game 3 at Scottrade Center on Sunday.
"It's a good start for us, but the job's not over yet," Schwartz said. "We know the last two are going to be the hardest and it starts in Game 3. They're going to throw everything at us, and we're excited to go home for sure. We did a good job so far, but we know it's going to get a lot tougher."

[WATCH: All Blues vs. Wild highlights | RELATED: Complete St. Louis vs. Minnesota series coverage]
Joel Edmundson, who scored the overtime winner for St. Louis on Wednesday, scored at 3:51 of the second period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. The defenseman had three goals in 69 games during the regular season and scored in consecutive games for the first time in his two NHL seasons.
"Maybe back in Peewee when I was a forward or something like that, [I scored in consecutive games], but no, not in the pro level, no," Edmundson said.
Zach Parise tied it 1-1 at 17:44 of the second with a 5-on-3 power-play goal. Parise also scored the tying goal in Game 1.
"Obviously we have to score goals," Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. "It's tough to win games when you're having a tough time scoring. Just focus on the next game and try to find a way to get the puck behind the goalie."

Jake Allen made 23 saves for St. Louis and has stopped 74 of 76 shots winning back-to-back postseason starts for the first time.
Devan Dubnyk made 20 saves for Minnesota.
"When it's tight like that, any play can be the difference, and we've just got to keep playing," Dubnyk said. "It's one game at a time, and we know we're one play or one breakaway from getting that goal we need to win the game."

Goal of the game

Schwartz shot over Dubnyk's glove for the game-winner. The forward has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past 13 games.

Save of the game

Allen denied Jason Pominville on a point-blank wrist shot at 11:21 of the third period to keep it 1-1.

Unsung performance of the game

Blues forward Kyle Brodziak cleared a loose puck from the goal mouth at 7:06 of the third period to keep it tied.

Highlight of the game

Parise got to a loose puck after Jay Bouwmeester blocked a shot by Eric Staal and lifted it top shelf for the tying goal.

They said it

"We didn't lose Game 1, we did enough things to win a hockey game. Obviously Jake was outstanding in that game, but he wears a jersey for a reason. He's part of our group. I think what we saw in Game 1 was it was a very even game until we got the lead and then we backed off a little bit. So we knew we had to be more aggressive, more assertive in our game. We knew we had to tweak a couple things and adjust a little bit and find a way to get better between (Games) 1 and 2 and I think we did that today. And now we're going to have to do the same thing [in Game 3]." -- Blues coach Mike Yeo
"You learn how desperate a team can play. When we were down one game to none in a different series (against the Dallas Stars in the second round last year), you want to come back with a really good effort in the second game. It only gets harder from here on out. We're happy with the win tonight, but our focus has to turn to Sunday." -- Blues forward Jaden Schwartz
"Both games were 2-1. If they were 6-0 or something, I'd say it's going to be a tough task [to dig out]. Not that it's not going to be a tough task, but let's face it, both games could've gone either way. So I don't see why we can't go in there and do the same thing to them that they did to us. This is what happened last year, when (the Anaheim Ducks) went into Nashville and won the next three games. So it's not impossible." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, who coached the Ducks against the Nashville Predators last season

Need to know

Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo had two hits playing 12:35 in his first game after missing six with an upper-body injury. … St. Louis is 10-2 in series after taking a 2-0 lead.

What's next

Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Scottrade Center on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports)