ST. LOUIS — With its season on the line, the Wild made not one but multiple changes ahead of facing the Blues on Thursday in Game 6.
Cam Talbot took over in net for his first start of the best-of-seven series after Marc-Andre Fleury handled the previous five games, while Dmitry Kulikov subbed in on defense and Connor Dewar lined up at forward for his Stanley Cup playoffs debut.
For Talbot, this was his first action in two weeks.
His last game had been April 28 vs. the Flames, a 3-2 overtime win that helped him close out the regular season on a 13-0-3 upswing. Despite those results, the Wild had Fleury between the pipes once the playoffs started after acquiring the three-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hall of Famer nicknamed "Flower" from the Blackhawks in a March 21 trade.
While the Wild went 2-3 vs. St. Louis, Fleury posted a 3.04 goals-against average and .906 save percentage. Talbot was 0-1-2 against the Blues during the regular season.
"The way he's handled it and the way Flower has handled it with now Cam in net, it's just a team-first mentality," Wild winger Marcus Foligno said. "Talbs speaks after games he hasn't played in. He's a voice in that room that we all rely on. He's an experienced goaltender in this league. He's gone through the playoffs a couple times and been on teams with some runs.
"We know he's a great goaltender and just like Flower, we know how to play in front of these guys."
Kulikov replaced Alex Goligoski, who had played since Game 2 in place of Kulikov, and Dewar filled out a new-look fourth line with Nic Deslauriers sidelined.