Facing a win-or-go-home game, the Wild accomplished both -- and will bring the series back to St. Paul for a Game 5 on Saturday.
It wasn't always pretty, and it probably wasn't Minnesota's best game of the series, but it certainly got the job done.
As some thought it might, the Wild scored the first goal and it made a big difference (more on that below). Minnesota was no longer chasing the game and it showed. As the game progressed, the Blues had to loosen up defensively, and it allowed for a bundle of grade-A opportunties in the second and third periods.
"It was do or die. I think everybody believed, before the game, in this room and we were trying to play as hard as we could and we did it," said Wild forward Martin Hanzal. "We gotta go shift by shift, game by game."
Blues goaltender Jake Allen was good again, save for a couple of glaring errors, giving the Wild just enough room to get in front. From there, Devan Dubnyk took control, stopping 28 shots for his first victory of the series. It was his second career playoff shutout.