Joel Edmundson slowly skated away from the slot after his overtime winner for St. Louis, as if the 23-year-old defenseman had done this several times before.

 

Keeping calm and staying steady were the keys to victory for Jake Allen and the Blues in weathering all that pressure from the Minnesota Wild.

 

Edmundson scored for St. Louis at 17:48 of the extra period , Allen made a career-high 51 saves and the Blues stole Game 1 of their first-round playoff series from the Wild with a 2-1 victory Wednesday night.

 

Blues star Vladimir Tarasenko was quiet most of the night until he spun past Mikko Koivu, drove into a crowd and lost control. The puck threaded through the Wild defense like a well-timed pass to Edmundson, who knocked in the second postseason goal of his career.

 

Zach Parise tied the game with 22.7 seconds left in regulation for the Wild, who'd never had a goalie make that many saves against them in their 16-year history.

 

The Wild outshot the Blues 52-26 and held a 47-33 advantage on faceoffs.

 

The Blues took the lead after an interception by Alexander Steen of Jonas Brodin's clearing attempt preceding a pass to Vladimir Sobotka in the slot, wound up a wrist shot that deflected off Christian Folin and past Dubnyk after Folin tripped.

 

Game 2 is Friday. 

 

>>Crosby Has NHL Top Selling Jerseys

 

Sidney Crosby has the best-selling jersey in the NHL for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

The league announced Wednesday that shop.NHL.com sales show the Pittsburgh Penguins captain leading the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews for the most popular jersey this season.

 

Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews makes his NHL debut on the list at No. 4, followed by New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

 

The league says sales of NHL merchandise on shop.NHL.com during the 2016-17 regular season were up 14 percent year-over-year, while jersey sales rose 11 percent during the same period.