Roaring response: Wild wins Game 5 in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – Ninety minutes before the opening faceoff, a number of Wild fans who made the trek down to St. Louis began "Dooooooooo''-ing and chanting "Let's Go Dubnyk."

Perhaps they figured at some point in this hard-fought, tight-checking series between the Wild and St. Louis Blues that Devan Dubnyk would have to steal a game.

The Wild goaltender did just that Friday night.

As the Blues peppered the Wild in the first half of the first period, Dubnyk supplied the security blanket until the Wild got comfy in the second. The Wild ultimately scored on back-to-back shots by Nino Niederreiter and Mikko Koivu to come from behind and snatch a 4-1 victory for its first 3-2 series lead in franchise history.

"That's what he's done since he's been here with us. It's nothing new to us," said Charlie Coyle, who iced the game with a goal to put the Wild up 4-1 with 5 minutes, 10 seconds left.

Not long after coach Mike Yeo informed him he was a Vezina Trophy finalist, Dubnyk made 36 saves to frustrate the Blues, who outshot the Wild 37-19, to no end. He was outstanding all night, especially in a 19-save third period when the Wild was in survival mode with the Blues pushing persistently.

"Pretty good day for him," Yeo said. "As far as good days go, that would be up there."

Dubnyk, eager to get back in net after Wednesday's worst playoff loss in Wild history, held strong two nights after being chased in Game 4 for his worst performance with the Wild.

"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't approaching it like I had to go get a shutout after last game," Dubnyk said. "I just wanted to get back to finding pucks and being set and feeling good about what I was doing."

On his special day, Dubnyk said, "It was a year ago today I was on the 'C' squad in Montreal."

The Wild is 12-1-2 in games after Dubnyk losses, and the big triumph in enemy territory has put the Wild in a position where it can eliminate the Blues on home ice at 2 p.m. Sunday.

"We need to treat that game like that's our Game 7," Dubnyk said.

You could sense the St. Louis fans' restlessness late in a first period the Blues dominated. Despite the Blues jumping to an 8-0 shot lead, Dubnyk allowed only a Vladimir Tarasenko power-play goal that he had no prayer of stopping.

Finally, Marco Scandella scored on the Wild's first shot 11 minutes, 6 seconds in, and the Wild survived the opening period despite a 12-3 shot deficit.

In the second, Dubnyk was again sensational. Dubnyk robbed superskilled Alex Steen twice in a 1-1 game, once after Steen dipsy-doodled around Scandella for a terrific chance, the other when Dubnyk was down and out but kicked out a leg while turned over for a desperation save.

Zach Parise called it a "game-changer."

"I don't like being in that position very much. Some guys are good at doing that. I'm not Dominik Hasek," Dubnyk said.

Finally, the Wild broke through late in the period with goals 1:26 apart.

Niederreiter, who replaced Jason Zucker on the Wild's top line with Koivu and Chris Stewart early in the first period, one-timed his second goal of the series with a seeing-eye shot from the slot after Zbynek Michalek gave Stewart too much room along the wall. Stewart got free and set up Niederreiter with a perfect pass with 5:04 left in the second.

Less than a minute later on a power play, Koivu made a power move to lose Paul Stastny and his attempted cross-crease pass to Stewart deflected in off Jay Bouwmeester's skate for Koivu's first goal of the series and a 3-1 Wild lead.

The Wild held the Blues to no shots in the last 6:49 of the period and had eight of the last nine shots in the period.

Dubnyk was stupendous from there to put the Wild in a position to eliminate St. Louis on Sunday. Koivu clearly doesn't want the Wild to get comfortable about Friday's big victory.

"It's one win. It's nothing more than that," the captain said.