GAME DAY REPORT: Coach Confident Wild can “do the same to them” in St. Louis

Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau spoke with the media about the Wild’s nail-biting Game 2 loss in Minnesota on Friday, which has left the team in a two-game deficit against their division rivals, the St. Louis Blues.

Boudreau spoke to the physicality of the game, and how his players reacted saying, “I thought it was a pretty physical game…Those are battles that you’ve got to leave alone”. He was referring to the offsetting roughing penalties late in the 3^rd period that eventually led to St. Louis’ game-winning goal by Jaden Schwartz.

Despite being down two games in the series, Boudreau was keen to emphasis how close the games have been, and that the Wild are far from done.

“Both game were 2-1, if they were 6-0 then I’d say it’s going to be a tough task… Let’s face it both games could have gone either way. I don’t see why we can’t got in there [St. Louis] and do the same to them.” Boudreau was quick to point out that they did exactly that against the Nashville Predators in the Playoffs last season.

“This is the playoffs, everyone has to battle and quite frankly I think we were going out of our way to hit guys too much” Boudreau said of his team’s response to the pounding physical grind of the series so far. “They were being more aggressive in our zone…they clog up the middle, they’ve got six big defencemen and it’s hard to get through”.

The Wild are far from out of the series despite the score, and Boudreau does have plenty of experience bringing teams back from slow playoff starts. The Minnesota coach is convinced that as long as the Wild play their game, and not the Blues style of hockey, they stand more than a fair chance to bring the series back.

The Minnesota Wild will take on the Blues in St. Louis in Game 3 on Sunday, April 16^th.