"Like I said, we fought hard at the end for home ice, and we have it this series," Blues coach Craig Berube said.

SPECIAL TEAMS UPTICK

The Blues special teams went from being dominated in the early going of the Winnipeg series to doing the dominating. The Blues were a combined 0-for-7 on the power play in Games 1 and 2; they went five for 12 on the power play the rest of the series.

"Our power play did a good job against Winnipeg; we scored timely goals against them," Berube said.

On the penalty kill, the Blues allowed three goals on nine Winnipeg power plays in Games 1-3, but went 5-for-5 on the PK the rest of the series.

"We always make adjustments game-to-game and even period-to-period about little things that we could do better," Berube said. "I remember the last (regular-season) game we played in Winnipeg, we beat 'em 1-0. Our penalty kill was really solid that night."

The Blues went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill in that game.

"We really fed off of that game and what we did against them," Berube said. "We did a good job of being tight, taking away (Mark) Scheifele and (Patrik) Laine as much as we could. And we left the top alone and absorbed shots from the top.