Tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET, the Minnesota Wild (46-28-8, 100 points) and St. Louis Blues (51-27-9, 109 points) skate against each other in Game 1 of their Round 1 best-of-seven series as part of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
Minnesota had a tremendous turnaround after struggling to start the season and won the wild-card to clinch a playoff spot for the third straight season.
St. Louis won the Central Division and tied for the most points in the Western Conference while making the postseason for the fourth straight campaign.
These teams split their head-to-head meetings this season, with each club notching a victory at home and on the road.
The Wild won two meetings in March while the Blues won the last encounter between these clubs on Saturday, the final day of the regular season. The Blues will look to advance after coughing up 2-0 series leads and losing in six games the last two years.
This game can be live streamed for free by clicking here.
The Wild's turnaround had many contributors, but perhaps no one factored into it more than Devan Dubnyk, who came over in January in a trade from the Phoenix Coyotes and went on a tremendous run.
He'll make his playoff debut tonight.
"I don't know [about] nerve-wracking," Dubnyk said per NHL.com. "I think I found a good routine here. [It's] about making the picture as small as possible and there's been a lot of big hockey games over this last stretch, a lot of important games."
Dubnyk finished 27-9-2 for Minnesota after the trade while ranking second in the NHL in goals-against average (2.07) and save percentage (.929).
The Blues will counter with rookie Jake Allen, who finished 22-7-4 with a 2.28 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
St. Louis is excited to put a healthy group on the ice as the team tries to get deep into the spring and exorcise past demons.
"This is a fresher group, a healthier group -- touch wood -- to start, which is the thing I'm feeling good about," head coach Ken Hitchcock told NHL.com. "I'm excited to see them play, but I felt really [bad] for a team that played so well last year, to have that happen to them, I thought that was really unfair. I felt for the players at the end of the year."
Vladimir Tarasenko had a fantastic season, leading the Blues with 73 points and ranking tied for fifth in the NHL with 37 goals. His linemate Alex Steen paced the club with 40 helpers while ranking second with 64 points.
Up front, the Wild have been led by Zach Parise, who found the twine 33 times this season and finished first on the club with 62 points.
Parise is on a tremendous top line for the Wild that includes center Mikael Granlund (18-36--54) and winger Jason Pominville, who notched 36 assists and 54 points this season.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs roll on as the puck drops on the Wild and Blues in their best-of-seven Round 1 Stanley Cup playoffs series live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
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