Wild counting on boost from X crowd as series shifts to home ice

As the Wild flew back from St. Louis with a split in the first two games of the best-of-seven series, Devan Dubnyk said he heard stories about the playoff atmosphere in St. Paul a year ago that helped lift the Wild to a 5-1 postseason record at the Xcel Energy Center.

Teammates, he said, told him about pregame festivities and a raucous atmosphere that helped push the Wild to a first-round upset and nearly a perfect home record.

If only a puck in the series-ender against Chicago had not bounced off a stanchion and on to the stick of Patrick Kane, who ended the Wild's season with a sudden strike in overtime of the sixth playoff game in St. Paul.

That was the last time the playoffs were in Minnesota, where the home fans waved white towels above their heads and celebrated five postseason victories along West 7th Street.

Now Dubnyk, an NHL playoff rookie before Game 1 in St. Louis, will backstop the Wild in Game 3 of the team's opening-round series against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night, and he's received a heads up on what to expect.

"Mayhem," Dubnyk said when asked what teammates told him to prepare for. "It'll be great. Just a lot of excitement and noise and great atmosphere. It'll be fun to be a part of and just use it as extra motivation and have fun."

By winning Game 1 of the series, the Wild negated the Blues' home-ice advantage.

They nearly held a 2-0 advantage after several chances to tie Game 2 just missed in the third period before they eventually fell 4-1.

"It'd be nice to be up 2-0, but it's an even series going back home now," Charlie Coyle said. "It's a five-game series and we've got home-ice advantage."

If last year's playoffs are an indication, that's a great thing for the Wild.

If play at the end of this regular season is an indication, it might not be so great.

The Wild completed their ascension up the Western Conference standings with a 12-game road winning streak that matched the NHL's all-time record. But at home, the Wild closed the regular season 4-5-1 in their last 10 games in St. Paul and 15-12-6 in their last 33 home games.

They finished the season with more road wins (24) than home wins (22), the only playoff-bound team in the Western Conference to do that.

"For me, this is different," coach Mike Yeo said. "That said, I don't think we're just going to be good here at home. But I'm not nervous about the game tomorrow because of the way we played against Winnipeg (April 6) in here, either. We were a real good playoff team at home last year. I know our home crowd was a big factor in that."

The big advantage in playing on home ice is the last change that comes with the familiar territory.

For the first time this series, Yeo can match up his players against the Blues however he pleases.

"When you get the matchups you want, it can make a difference," Zach Parise said. "If you can get one or two mismatches throughout a game, you try to take advantage of that."

Last change also means Yeo is given the unenviable task of determining how to combat Vladimir Tarasenko, the Blues' game-changing 23-year-old who netted a hat trick in their Game 2 win.

But as the series shifts from St. Louis to St. Paul, Yeo is hopeful he won't need to try anything drastic, like when the Wild deployed Erik Haula to stalk Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon on the ice a year ago. Instead, Yeo pointed out that Tarasenko went without a shot in Game 1, even if he opted against using the Russian's name.

"Obviously, the guy that you're talking about, he's a very good player and he's going to find a way to make plays," Yeo said. "Game 1, I don't think that it was a real factor and so I don't think you have to rush to too many huge conclusions after one game. ... You can't just put one guy and shadow him because they've got other guys out there that would take you out of your system."