Minnesota has never been so good in the last seven years: it finished the regular season in second place in the Western Conference, losing only to the heavy-duty Colorado, updated the record for the number of wins in a season and received a new leading scorer in the club’s history – Kirill Kaprizov passed the 100 point milestone.

However, the Savages’ chances of winning the first playoff series against St. Louis still seemed pretty slim. The blame for everything is the curse of Minnesota, namely, the absence of victories away from the Bluesmen for three seasons.

But on Saturday night, in Game 3, the Wild managed to end their losing streak after they moved to St. Louis. The score in the confrontation after two matches is equal – 1-1, but the moral advantage was on the side of the Wild. They beat the Blues 6-2 without a chance in their last home match, finally picking up the key to an uncomfortable opponent.

The main star of that meeting was the author of the hat-trick Kirill Kaprizov, who for the first time in almost two seasons in the NHL showed himself in all his glory in the playoffs. It was this – the game in the decisive stage of the tournament – that was a small fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey called “Caprizov”. He transformed the Minnesota game, fitting in perfectly with the team and becoming the main striking force of the powerful trio with Zuccarello and Hartman.

But against St. Louis a year ago, he could not show anything, gaining only three points in seven matches. Then there was even talk that Kaprizov was not a cup player. A year later, it became clear that this was not the case: the Russian managed to single-handedly bring the Wild their first victory in the playoffs.

Kirill Kaprizov / Photo: © REUTERS / Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

In the third match of the series, Whims decided not to stop there and continued to upset St. Louis. The meeting generally started very unsuccessfully for the Blues, although it was the first home in the playoffs. In the first minute of the game, the hosts missed the “savages” counterattack, and Jordan Greenway shot goalkeeper Ville Husso.

And in the third minute, Kaprizov already scored, and he did it in a chic style: first he turned on the turbo mode and ran one on one with the goalkeeper, tried on a shot for a long time and eventually buried himself with the puck in a protected corner. It seemed that the moment was over, but Kaprizov did not think so. Already outside the gate, the Russian picked up the puck and, in a half-turn, put it into the fad of Husso, who had come out of the gate. From him, she magically ricocheted exactly into the net. An amazing goal from a negative angle, showing how important it is to fight to the very end. It was painful to look at the goalkeeper of the “bluesmen”, because it is especially insulting to miss such goals.

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Inspired by Minnesota, they continued to press on St. Louis, not even giving him a chance to recoup. In the second period, with the transfer of Kaprizov, Tsukarello scored, and in the third two more of their partners upset Husso, who missed five goals in a meeting. The bitterness of failure was brightened up by the goal of the Blues forward Ryan O’Reilly.

Although St. Louis was defeated and the curse of Minnesota lifted, the outcome of the series, which is 2-1 in favor of the Savages, has not yet been decided. The Bluesmen, just like their rivals, can turn the tide of confrontation and give the fans an equally exciting fight than a year ago, when the strongest was determined only in the seventh match.