THE MATCHUP

Minnesota Wild: 49-25-8, 2nd in Central

St. Louis Blues: 46-29-7, 3rd in Central

Minnesota: After being in control of the Central Division for most of the season, the Wild stumbled down the stretch, going 4-11-1 in March. However, head coach Bruce Boudreau still guided this team to a franchise-record 49 wins and 106 points. They pack plenty of offensive punch and are sound defensively. Goalie Devan Dubnyk won 40 games, posted a goals-against average of 2.25 and had a .923 save percentage with five shutouts, despite a tough March. Forward Mikael Granlund led the Wild in scoring with 69 points in 81 games during a breakout season.

St. Louis: Just two wins away from the Stanley Cup final last year, the Blues were reeling when they fired head coach Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1 and replaced him with former Wild bench boss Mike Yeo. The Blues found their defensive structure and received improved play from goalie Jake Allen. Captain Alex Pietrangelo is one of the top blueliners in the Western Conference and he’s a big weapon on the power play. They don’t play as physical a game as they did in past years, but they score by committee and the core players have ample playoff experience.

Who wins? Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher was aggressive at the NHL trade deadline and brought in centre Martin Hanzal to bolster his depth down the middle. Forward depth could end up being the difference in this series, especially with the Blues missing Robby Fabbri and possibly Paul Stastny with injuries. Wild in 6.

Season series: Blues won 3-2

All- time playoff series: Wild are 1- 0 St. Louis’s key player: RW Vladimir Tarasenko. The Russian sniper was kept in check by the San Jose Sharks last spring, but has 19 goals, 26 points in 33 playoff games.

Minnesota’s key player: C Eric Staal. His bounceback season included leading the Wild in goals with 28 (including eight gamewinners) and recording 65 points in 82 games.

Wild lineup

Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Nino Niederreiter

Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund

Erik Haula, Martin Hanzal, Charlie Coyle

Chris Stewart, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jason Pominville

Defensive pairings

Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon Marco Scandella, Matt Dumba Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin

Goalies

Devan Dubnyk Darcy Kuemper

Blues lineup

Jaden Schwartz, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko

Alex Steen, Patrik Berglund, David Perron

Vladimir Sobotka, Jori Lehtera, Zach Sanford

Scottie Upshall, Kyle Brodziak, Ryan Reaves

Defensive pairings

Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Pietrangelo

Joel Edmundson, Colton Parayko

Carl Gunnarsson, Jordan Schmaltz

Goalies

Jake Allen Carter Hutton