Twin Cities and St. Louis media agreed on one thing Thursday morning: Goalie Jake Allen stole Game 1 for the Blues. Allen's 51 saves led St. Louis to a 2-1 overtime victory over the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.
St. Louis Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman considered the performance superhuman.
"Jake Allen had the characteristics of a regular person, but mere humans just don't save 51 shots on the road in a playoff game," Hochman wrote. "The extraordinary was extraterrestrial, the superb was superhuman."
Blues coach Mike Yeo told the St. Louis media he was having trouble describing Allen's efforts even though Yeo knew it was going to be the first question he received after the game.
So Hochman took the liberty of answering for Yeo by writing, "Well, here's a way to describe it: The Blues didn't deserve to win, but the play of one Blue made up for the mediocre play of the other 18.
"If they play like this again, they'll lose. … No team should play that bad and steal a win, let alone a playoff win, let alone a playoff road win. But your St. Louis Blues, with an unsustainable brand of hockey and an insatiable stack of house money, won a game thanks to St. Louis' Allen, who made more saves than Jason Isringhausen or an exiting president granting pardons."
The Wild played like it was on a 40-minute power play in the second and third periods, Hochman proclaimed. But Allen might have saved the series for the Blues, he concluded.
St. Louis Dispatch hockey beat writer Jeremy Rutherford led his story with Joel Edmundson's winning goal, but after getting through the details of how the game ended, he turned his attention to Allen.
