Kwiecinski: St. Louis Blues seek reversal of fortunes after Game 3 loss to Minnesota Wild

ST. LOUIS — The saying goes, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.” We hear that so many times in sports.

The St. Louis Blues are wishing they had any kind of luck right now.

The Minnesota Wild easily handled the Blues 5-1 on Friday night in Game 3 of a Western Conference first-round playoff series at an Enterprise Center that so badly wanted some playoff magic.

The energy was palpable as the fans lined into their seats and packed the house. It was exciting. It was electrifying. Even a first-timer like myself could feel that.

Instead, Minnesota snapped a seven-game skid against the Blues in St. Louis and the Blues are now going on two years, 10 months and 28 days without winning a Stanley Cup playoff game at home.

Trailing the series 2-1, they get their next chance in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon.

The Wild netted two goals in the first five minutes Friday. There wasn’t much Blues goalie Ville Husso could do when the Wild took advantage of the Blues’ depleted blue line. The Blues were without defenseman Nick Leddy for Friday's game but returned Marco Scandella. Scandella was a game-time decision but finished the game.

”We can’t look at that as an excuse,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We've got to figure a way to do it.”

The Blues' offense was active, but the hurt defense led to one-on-one and two-on-one opportunities. Husso faced his first of a handful when Minnesota's Jordan Greenway scored 39 seconds into the game. Just over a minute and a half later, Kirill Kaprizov banked a fortuitous shot off Husso's skate for a 2-0 hole.

“It was definitely deflating for us,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “We’re a veteran team. We should have responded better.”

All of that happened before Torey Krug became the latest St. Louis defenseman to suffer an injury. He left in the first period and was ruled out for the second with what the Blues officially called a lower-body injury.

There were plenty of chances for the Blues, who outshot the Wild most of the game. St. Louis had its opportunities on Minnesota goalie Marc Andre-Fleury, but couldn't connect on passes or consistently put a body in front of Andre-Fleury to obstruct his view.

After trailing 3-0 through two periods, the Blues’ lone goal came in the third, sandwiched between a pair of third-period scores by the Wild. One was 22 seconds into the third, and the other was an empty-net goal with less than eight minutes remaining.

By that point, there wasn't enough time to even think about a comeback.

Even with another 8:30 p.m. start, the Enterprise Center was ready. There was a synchronized light show with fans using the Blues' app. The crowd drowned out an introductory video with a "Lets Go Blues" chant.

The Blues went 26-10-5 at home during the regular season.

The Enterprise Center was ready to explode, quite the stark contrast from the last time the Tribune covered a game there, when Missouri played Illinois in basketball.

Even Columbia has been full of Blues fans donning sweaters and flying their team flags ahead of finals week at the University of Missouri.

By the end of Friday night, however, any “Let's Go Blues” chants devolved into soft “Let's Go Wild" chants with three minutes left.

Now St. Louis looks to change fortunes back into its favor.

Chris Kwiecinski is the sports editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune, overseeing University of Missouri and Boone County sports coverage. Follow him on Twitter @OchoK_ and contact him at CKwiecinsk@gannett.com or 573-815-1857.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Kwiecinski: Blues seek reversal of fortunes after Game 3 loss