ST. LOUIS — After evening the series with a 6-2 rout on Wednesday, the Wild won't alter its lineup for Game 3 against the Blues on Friday night.
But what is changing is the venue.
The Wild has lost seven in a row at Enterprise Center, getting outscored 35-15 in those games.
"It's always tough going into another team's building in the playoffs with the fans and everything like that," winger Jordan Greenway said. "For us, we have to find a way to not allow them to get momentum from it and kind of try and not give them anything to cheer about. For us just building off of what we did last game and just focusing on the little things that gave us the success we had and try to keep out all the external pressures and things that we don't need to worry about."
Now as the road team, the Wild won't get last change and that could affect the team's ability to get the matchups it wants.
"It'll be interesting what they try to do tonight," coach Dean Evason. "They obviously know what we were trying to do there. They may try to stay away from some. But again, we're not going to be flipping people off and on. We'll get the defense match off of what they would like to do against our forward match.
"If we get it, fine. If we don't, great. We're very comfortable with the group that we have, and we have been all year. It doesn't matter if it's our so-called first line or fourth line or if it's our scoring line or our checking line. We play the same way."
Projected lineup:
Kirill Kaprizov-Ryan Hartman-Mats Zuccarello
Kevin Fiala-Frederick Gaudreau-Matt Boldy
Jordan Greenway-Joel Eriksson Ek-Marcus Foligno
Nic Deslauriers-Tyson Jost-Brandon Duhaime
Jake Middleton-Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin-Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill-Alex Goligoski
Marc-Andre Fleury
Key numbers:
2: Power play goals for the Wild in the first period of Game 2, which tied the franchise record for most in a period in a playoff game.
2: Assists for St. Louis' Robert Thomas in Game 2.
3: Points in Game 2 for center Joel Eriksson Ek.
7-0: Record for the Blues vs. the Wild at Enterprise center with Craig Berube as their coach.
7-8: Record for the Wild all-time in Game 3.
About the Blues:
The Blues might get one of their injured defensemen back in the lineup for Game 3. Marco Scandella (lower-body injury) will be a game-time decision. "He's played a lot of games in the league and playoff games," Berube said. "Experience. Size. He's a good penalty killer for us. He plays against top players on the other team. So, he does a lot." Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo have both been ruled out with upper-body injuries.
