Parise leads Wild to Western semifinals

Minnesota was killing an early penalty when Zach Parise snagged a loose puck in the neutral zone, raced away from St. Louis and triggered a huge roar from the home crowd with his high light-goal.

That was a bad sign for the Blues. Game 6 belonged to Parise and the Wild.

Parise scored twice, including that short-handed goal to get the Wild going in the first period on their way to a 4-1 victory against the Blues in Game 6 of the series Sunday for a spot in the Western Conference semifinals.

“He’s tenacious. He’s an all-world player for a reason, because he works his butt off and he’s able to find opportunities like that,” Blues captain David Backes said, praising Parise.

Justin Fontaine also scored, Nino Niederreiter added an empty-net goal and the Wild set up a rematch with Chicago.

The Blackhawks, who beat Nashville in six games to move on, knocked the Wild out in six games in the second round last year and in five games in the first round the year before that.

“I think we’re all ready for them,” Fontaine said.

Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves, giving him 66 over the past two games after the 6-1 defeat here that allowed the Blues to tie the series. The Wild outscored the Blues 8-2 after that. This was the 10th consecutive postseason loss for the Blues when facing elimination.

“It’s hard to win when you’re chasing games all the time,” coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Hitchcock pulled goalie Jake Allen for Brian Elliott after Fontaine scored with 8:41 left in the second period, and T.J. Oshie’s first goal of the series came with four seconds left before the second intermission to give the Blues some life.

“They are as tough a team as any to play against,” Dubnyk said. “We should enjoy that and realize that we deserve to win the series.”

The building was buzzing from the start, befitting of the opportunity to see the Wild celebrate a postseason advancement at home for the first time. The Wild won three of their previous nine playoff series, all with Game 7 victories on the road.

“It meant a lot to us to try to win this game in front of our fans,” coach Mike Yeo said. “They deserved that.”

Other game

Canadiens 2, Senators 0: Carey Price made 43 saves and Brendan Gallagher scored in the first as visiting Montreal defeated Ottawa to advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs. Max Pacioretty sealed the win with an empty-net goal.