Fleury makes 29 saves as Wild breeze past Blues to take series lead

May 7, 2022

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots, and the Minnesota Wild beat the hosts St. Louis Blues 5-1 on Friday night to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.

Joel Erickson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Greenway, Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored as the Wild improved to 8-8 all-time in Game 3s.

Fleury, playing in a 16th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff win.

Ryan O’Reilly scored a power play goal and Ville Husso made 28 saves for the Blues.

St. Louis lost Torey Krug to a lower body injury early in the first period. Krug is the third Blues defensemen to get hurt in the series.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday afternoon in St. Louis before shifting back to St. Paul, Minnesota, for Game 5.

The Wild wasted no time quieting the crowd by taking advantage of the Blues’ aggressiveness for two early goals.

St. Louis defenceman Colton Parayko was caught chipping in the offensive zone creating a 2-on-1 break resulting in Greenway’s goal 39 seconds in.

Less than two minutes later, Ryan Hartman sprung Kaprizov on a breakaway. Husso made the initial save, steering the rebound to the corner, but Kaprizov banked the rebound off Husso’s skate from behind the net to give the Wild a 2-0 lead.

Zucarello’s 16th career playoff goal gave the Wild a 3-0 lead in the second period and Erickson Ek scored his third goal of the series 22 seconds into the third period. Marcus Foligno picked up his second assist of the game on Erickson Ek’s tally.

The Blues got some momentum going after O’Reilly’s goal at 2:17 of the third, but Fleury made several tough saves to keep the rally from gaining more traction.

Brodin’s goal with 7:29 left prompted a significant portion of the sellout crowd to head for the exits.

Bruins cut into Hurricanes’ series lead

Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists on Friday night to help the Boston Bruins take their first lead against the visiting Hurricanes all season — and hold onto it for a 4-2 victory over Carolina in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

Rookie Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots in his first career playoff start after Linus Ullmark allowed eight goals in the first two games, both Hurricanes victories. That followed a regular season in which Carolina swept all three games, outscoring the Bruins 16-1 and never trailing.

Charlie Coyle scored a short-handed goal and added an assist, and David Pastrnak had a power-play goal and an assist for Boston, which hopes to even the best-of-seven series when it hosts Game 4 on Sunday. Taylor Hall added a power-play goal for the Bruins to make it 4-1 early in the third period.

Vincent Trocheck and Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina, and backup goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves in his first career playoff start. He took over in Game 2 after starter Antti Raanta was injured in a collision with Pastrnak.

Trocheck gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, swiping in a rebound just as he was belatedly knocked down in front of the net. But Coyle tied it on a give-and-go with Jake DeBrusk with 2:44 left in the first.

Five minutes into second, Marchand fought off the puck along the boards and headed for the slot, where he picked up Patrice Bergeron’s deflected shot and went high over Kochetkov — Boston’s first lead over Carolina in 325 minutes, 41 seconds this season.

The Hurricanes took back-to-back penalties late in the second, and soon after the 5-on-3 became a one-man advantage, Pastrnak wristed one in from the left circle to make it 3-1.

Player out, official out

The Hurricanes lost forward Jordan Martinook in the second period when he got his legs tangled up with Boston’s Taylor Hall. Martinook got back on his skates, but couldn’t put any weight on his right ankle.

He went down the tunnel and the Hurricanes said he would not return.

The game was delayed for about seven minutes when a section of the glass fell on an NHL official working the Bruins penalty box.

Play was whistled dead with 5:07 left in the second period and medical staff ran across the ice to tend to the official, who was not immediately identified. He was taken off on a stretcher and given a cheer by the Boston fans.

The glass separated the Boston penalty box from the stands. Play resumed with a police officer in the stands to maintain a barrier. The Bruins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.