Postgame: Jake Allen makes 51 saves, steals Game 1 for St. Louis

Needless to say, lost opportunity by the Wild three minutes after midnight Thursday when the Wild fell 2-1 in Game 1 of its first-round series against the St. Louis Blues.

One-sided second and third periods, but Jake Allen was absolutely sensational as the Wild fired a franchise-record 52 shots at home and 90 total shot attempts. Allen made 51 saves, the most by an opposing Wild goalie in a playoff game.

But with the Wild showing signs of fatigue after having the puck, territorial advantage and most every scoring chance for the final two periods and overtime, the incredibly strong, thick Vladimir Tarasenko, barely visible all game by the Wild and mostly the Koivu line, got body position on the flat-footed Koivu and drove the net from the corner. The puck looked like it was knocked off his stick right to Joel Edmundson.

The 23-year-old defenseman who had one career playoff goal and four career regular-season goals buried it into an open net with 2:12 left in the first OT.

"You're just hoping you don't screw it up," Edmundson said. "It's pretty hard to miss that one. But I thought the forwards did a good job of getting it down to the net."

As good as Allen was, the Wild – the second-best offensive team in the NHL this season -- lost because of its lack of finish. In overtime, Charlie Coyle's stick snapped in half on a beautiful power-play setup. In the third period, Mikael Granlund, who turned a lot of pucks over tonight and had too many fly-bys at the net, shot a bouncing puck into Allen with the net open. Chris Stewart couldn't settle an Eric Staal rebound in the first with the net empty. Erik Haula couldn't bury a number of chances.

In the third, Matt Dumba was denied by Allen, then hit the post, then threw the puck in the crease. Nino Niederreiter, battling with Jay Bouwmeester, jammed at the puck and it looked to be about to trickle over the goal line when Parise's shaft jammed the post, he said, and the blade of his stick accidentally propelled the puck behind Allen away from the goal line.

"Trust me, I know what happened. Didn't feel good," said Parise, who made up for it later with the tying goal.

The Wild said all the right things after the game, that it can't let the dejection of dominating a playoff game and not being rewarded cause a letdown in Game 2.

But that's easier said than done when you control play all game and just get robbed by the league's best statistical goalie since Feb. 1. Now we all know what all the Jake Allen fuss is about.

Tarasenko was held to four shots, and you know he's probably going to eventually get his. So the Wild must figure out a way to rebound.

Have to think Nate Prosser plays Game 2, but we'll see. Maybe they'd recall Gustav Olofsson and play him. The Wild's sixth D spot is an issue. Christian Folin had a tough game.

Some quotes:

Edmundson on Allen: "50-something saves is pretty remarkable. We relied on him a bit too much tonight. We weren't too happy with the way we played tonight, but luckily he came to play tonight and he stood on his head and got us the win."

Any Allen save standout? Edmundson said, "I can't count them on both hands. He made about 20 remarkable saves. It was really good to see."

Yeo on Edmundson: "The way he celebrated, it looked like he wasn't too surprised. I thought he had a phenomenal game though so I was happy to see him get rewarded."

Yeo on Allen: "I thought he was phenomenal. Really not much to say. He was outstanding. He was challenged in so many situations and certainly stepped up."

On the 52 Wild shots, Yeo said, "I know that they had some real high quality shots, but their numbers will be inflated every game. They recognize that we protect the middle of the ice pretty well and they're trying to create from the outside. We have to be aware of that. I think we can do a much better job in some areas. We didn't have the puck enough and that's the issue. But we know that we have to be better. We can't just rely on Jake to have a performance like that night after night, but I'm certainly encouraged that we got the win."

Colton Parayko on Edmundson: "That's the beauty of the playoffs. There's heroes every night and different guys step up. It was tough to give up that one at the end of the game there, but obviously with us sticking with it, staying with the game plan and knowing if we stay together we can get this thing done."
Parayko on Allen: "He was unbelievable, save after save. He was amazing to watch and it was fun for us to be a part of."
Devan Dubnyk: "Obviously the outcome wasn't there but I think we play like that every game, we're probably going to get the results we want and that's the important thing. When a game like that doesn't finish how you want it to, just gotta keep doing what you're doing. We stick to that game we're going to be tough to beat.

"It's strange, a game like that when you do tie it late, it feels good and you think there's a good opportunity to win in overtime. But that's playoff hockey. Sometimes it's a strange game that we weren't able to get more goals, the way we were putting pucks to the net and crashing the net. The most important thing is that we keep doing what we're doing. It's easy to get frustrated and start changing your approach and thinking you've got to do something different to score goals. If we play like that every game, it should be the right outcome most of the time."

Allen: "We wanted to come in here and give a good, solid effort and came out on top in the first game and that's crucial for us. It's a tough building to play in, tough building to win in and we got the job done. Move on to the next one."

After the Wild goal, Allen said, "We did a good job as a group. We came in here, we still had a good attitude and that's gonna happen. It's tough; it's hockey. They had a good push there in the third and good play by them. We came back, we thought we had a pretty decent overtime and a greasy goal to win. That's usually what it takes once it gets to the extra frames."

Parise: "Win or lose, short memories are important. You still have to look at the good things that we did and look at where we can be better. Unfortunately right now, we're down 1-0 and now we've got to even it up."

Jason Zucker: "We pressured them hard. I don't know how many shots we ended up with. 50 or whatever it was. We crashed the net. We just couldn't find a way to put any in.
"There are a few tweaks that we'll make, but we've got to bring that same intensity and that same grit to our game and push for 60 minutes to be a little bit harder around the net and make sure a few of those rebounds go into the net.
"There's another six games to be played. It's disappointing. We wanted to win this game. But overall, we can't get down on ourselves and sit back and 'poor me' attitude. We've got to regroup."

Talk to ya Thursday.