ST. LOUIS — After a dominant performance in Game 6 of the first round against the Minnesota Wild, the Blues are marching on to the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Blues took care of business at home in Game 6, beating the Wild 5-1.
"It was a tough battle. That's a very good team over there. It's kind of a shame we played in the first round," Blues forward Tyler Bozak said of the series.
"Just a great team effort. It's good to be at this point and we're ready for the next challenge," Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington said after Game 6.
The Blues got the action started in the first period, as defenseman Nick Leddy glided into the Wild zone and beat Minnesota goaltender Cam Talbot to make it 1-0.
That score held till the second, when the Blues broke out in a big way.
Captain Ryan O'Reilly took a gorgeous pass from Brayden Schenn to finish point-blank on Talbot to make it 2-0. It was O'Reilly's fifth goal of the playoffs.
The Blues added on in the second, first on a goal from Tyler Bozak who cleaned up a strong drive from Alexei Toropchenko and put it past Talbot to make it 3-0.
Vladimir Tarasenko continued his strong postseason with the Blues' third goal of the second period with less than two minutes remaining in the period to make it 4-0. That was Tarasenko's fifth goal of the postseason.
Wild defenseman Matt Dumba netted his team's first goal of Game 6 just over six minutes into the third period to make it a 4-1 game.
Blues defenseman Colton Parayko netted the team's fifth goal of the game, an empty-netter in the third to cap off the scoring. Thursday was also Parayko's 29th birthday.
Jordan Binnington was impressive in net again in his third start of the series. Binnington stopped 25 of 26 Wild shots. After a Ville Husso shutout in Game 1 and back-to-back losses in Games 2 and 3, Binnington won three straight to send the Blues through to the second round.
This is the first time the Blues have advanced past the first round of the playoffs since their run to the Stanley Cup in 2019.
They'll now face Central Division foe Colorado in the second round, after the Avalanche dispatched of the Nashville Predators in their first round series.
The Avalanche were the best team in the Western Conference during the regular season, going 56-19-7 and amassing 119 points. They lost out on the Presidents' Trophy by three points to the Florida Panthers.