After looking lethargic in a 3-0 loss to the Wild in game three, the Blues came out with a vengeance in game four, spanking the Wild 6-1. Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals and Kevin Shattenkirk tallied three assists to spark a dominant Blues win. With this win, the Blues snap a nine game postseason road losing streak.
The Blues scored three goals in less than a five minute stretch with Ryan Reaves getting the first with assists from Alex Pietrangelo and Chris Porter 5:34 into the game. Tarasenko scored his first goal of the game 1:25 later with Shattenkirk and David Backes getting the assists. Six seconds past the halfway mark of the period Backes scored, Shattenkirk and T.J. Oshie picked up the assists. But right before the period ended a Steve Ott penalty gave the Wild a power play.
Jared Spurgeon scored with just eight seconds left on the power play, 1:41 into the second. Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund picked up the assists. For a moment the Wild had hope. But less than two minutes later Paul Stastny picked up his first goal of the series to put the Blues up 4-1. Patrik Berglund and Dmitrij Jaskin picked up the assists. The Blues put the icing on the cake when Tarasenko scored his second of the game and fifth of the series with 4:13 left in the second, Jori Lehtera and Shattenkirk picked up the helpers. Just over a minute left Berglund scored, as if there were any doubt about the outcome at that point. After that goal Devan Dubnyk was pulled from the game and Darcy Kuemper finished the game for the Wild.
The Wild offense was lethargic in this game, only putting 18 shots on Jake Allen.
The series will shift back to St. Louis for game five on Friday night. So far this series has been all about one team dominating the other one, and we’ll see if that trend continues.