Zach Parise scored twice and Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to help the Minnesota Wild defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 in Game 6 to clinch the Western Conference First Round series at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
The Central Division-champion Blues have now been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in three straight seasons.
Down 2-0 in the second, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Jake Allen in favor of Brian Elliott.  T.J. Oshie cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into the third.  Parise’s second of the game came 1:01 into the third to put the game out of reach. Nino Niederreiter added an empty-netter.
The Blues offense tanked after busting through for six goals against Dubnyk in game four. Â The Blues scored just twice on 68 shots over the final two games.
“It sucks,” said captain David Backes. Â “There’s no other summary for it. Â Rather than go up a notch, we’re on a heels too much.”
The disappointments for the Blues offensively were:
Paul Stastny, 1 goal, 1 point, -3
T.J. Oshie, 1 goal, 1 assist, -3
Jori Lehtera, 0 goals, 2 assists, -2
Despite leading the Blues in scoring with six goals and one assist, Vladimir Tarasenko was also a -4. Â Patrik Berglund and David Backes were the only top forwards on the top that were positive on the +/- side.