Paajarvi, Blues send Wild home

His goal in OT ends the series

Magnus Paajarvi scored at the 9-minute, 42second mark in overtime, giving the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 victory over host Minnesota on Saturday in Game 5 of their playoff series, eliminating the Wild in the first round following the best season in franchise history.

The Blues advanced to play Nashville in the second round, with Game 1 against the Predators in St. Louis later in the week.

Jake Allen made 34 saves for the Blues, who led, 2-0 and 3-1, before a furious rally by the Wild to try to keep its season alive forced the extra frame.

Paajarvi’s first career playoff goal gave Blues coach Mike Yeo the satisfaction of beating the team that fired him a little over a year ago. Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who stopped 23 shots, turned the puck over to Vladimir Sobotka, who set up Paajarvi.

Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker scored to bring the Wild back from its second two-goal hole, a deficit that held past the midpoint of the third period.

Allen stopped 174 of the 182 shots he faced in the series.

Rangers 3, Canadiens 1: Mats Zuccarello scored twice in the second period of Game 6 and New York advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Derek Stepan also scored and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots to help New York get past the first round for the fifth time in six years. The Rangers won three straight after falling behind, 2-1, to beat Montreal for the ninth time in 16 postseason series.

The Rangers will face the winner of the Ottawa-Boston series, which the Senators lead, 3-2.

Alexei Emelin scored for Montreal and Carey Price finished with 20 saves. The Canadiens, winners of the Atlantic Division after missing the playoffs last year, were bounced from the postseason by the Rangers for the second time in four years. In 2014, it was in the conference finals.

After being outplayed for most of the first period, the Rangers came out more aggressive in the second and outshot the Canadiens, 12-8.