NHL Playoff Series Preview: Minnesota Wild at St. Louis Blues

Goaltending is amplified at playoff time in the NHL. The starters for Thursday night between Minnesota and St. Louis have a combined one minute of playoff experience.

Devan Dubnyk saved the Wild's season. He was acquired in mid-January and has a 27-9-2 record since then with a 1.78 goals against average and .936 saves percentage. He has played in all but one game since joining the team. Thursday will be Dubnyk's post-season debut. The Blues named Jake Allen as their starter over veteran Brian Elliott for game one. Allen played one minute in one playoff game in 2012.

Minnesota (No. 7 seed) won the season series over (No. 2 seed) St. Louis 2-1-1, out-scoring the Blues 13-10. St. Louis beat the Wild in the regular season finale last weekend. The Blues have suffered first-round playoff losses in the each of the past two seasons. Minnesota won their first-round series last year, before falling to Chicago.

The Wild's offensive numbers are in the bottom half of the league. They average 2.77 goals per game (13th). Their power play is 15.8 percent (27th). The Blues' numbers include 2.91 goals per game (fifth) and power play 22.3 percent (fourth).

St. Louis has a 27-12-2 home record and 24-12-5 road mark. The Wild have a better record on the road (24-15-2) than at home (22-13-6).

The schedule

• Thursday, April 16 at St. Louis, 8:30PM on FSN
• Saturday, April 18 at St. Louis, 2PM on NBC
• Monday, April 20 at Minnesota, 7PM on FSN
• Wednesday, April 22 at Minnesota, 8:30PM on FSN
• Friday, April 24 at St. Louis (if needed)
• Sunday, April 26 at Minnesota (if needed)
• Wednesday, April 29 at St. Louis (if needed)

Wednesday's opening night of the Stanley Cup playoffs had several examples of what makes the NHL playoffs entertaining. Chicago rallied from an early three-goal deficit to win 4-3 at Nashville in double overtime. Two other road teams won as well. Calgary rallied with two in the third period to win 2-1 at Vancouver. The Islanders won at Washington 4-1. Montreal was the lone home winner, beating Ottawa 4-3. The team that scored first lost three of the four games.