Wild Beat Blues 4-1, Take 3-2 Lead
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Devan Dubnyk had a strong bounce-back effort in goal and the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Friday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.
After allowing six goals in two periods in a 6-1 loss in Game 4, Dubnyk but made 36 saves in Game 5 and twice robbed Alexander Steen from close range in the second period.
The Wild scored three straight goals after Vladimir Tarasenko gave St. Louis the early edge with his playoff-leading sixth goal, including the fourth power-play tally of the series by one of the NHL's weakest units in the regular season.
Nino Niederreiter scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Marco Scandella, Mikko Koivo and Charlie Coyle also scored for Minnesota. The Wild can wrap up the series at home in Game 6 on Sunday.
The Central Division champion Blues will be trying to avoid their third straight first-round elimination and bring the series back home for Game 7 on Wednesday night.
Dubnyk, Price, Rinne finalists for Vezina Trophy
NEW YORK (AP) — Montreal's Carey Price, Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk and Nashville's Pekka Rinne are the finalists for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie.
The 30 NHL general managers submitted ballots at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists Friday. The winner will be announced June 24 during the NHL awards ceremony in Las Vegas.
Price led the NHL in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933), becoming the first goalie to top the league in all three categories since Ed Belfour with Chicago in 1990-91. Price also had a career-high nine shutouts.
Dubnyk set a franchise record with 38 straight starts following a trade with Arizona, going 27-9-2 with a 1.78 GAA, .936 save percentage and five shutouts for Minnesota.
Rinne was 41-17-6 in 64 appearances. He tied for second in the NHL in wins, was third in goals-against average (2.18) and was seventh in save percentage (.923).
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