Here’s a quick look at the Minnesota Wild's win over the St. Louis Blues in Game 3 of the Western Conference first-round series Monday at the Xcel Energy Center:

What happened: The Blues brought the brawn from the get-go and ultimately continued too far down that road, with after-the-whistle shenanigans attempting to take the rhythm out of the Wild's preferred speed-based approach. The Blues' intimidation tactics focused primarily on getting in the faces of Zach Parise and Jason Zucker. Clearly distracted by the directive to play tough, the Blues were limited to four shots in the first.

The Wild, unbowed, leaned forward on the offense in the second. Jason Pominville jammed in a beautiful pass by Parise after a broken, odd-man rush to cap a burst during which the Wild dominated; they were outshooting the Blues 19-7 by this point. Seemingly every Blues rally to tie it was suppressed by the Wild's speed to coverage, which would also be the theme for the remainder of the game. Before the end of the second, Parise stole the puck from a fiddling Jay Bouwmeester and snapped it over the glove of Jake Allen from the deep slot. The crowd turned the volume up to 11, and the Wild never looked back. Nino Niederreiter finished the scoring with an empty-netter in the third.

What it means: The Wild take a 2-1 series lead and, if the momentum continues, have a decent shot of going up 3-1, given Game 4 is in their building.

Player of the game: Wild assistant captain Parise was a force to be reckoned with, not only on the scoreboard with a goal and an assist, but also with his tenacity and discipline in the face of constant verbal and physical abuse at the fists of the bigger Blues. Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk also bears mentioning for being solid when called upon.

Stat of the game: The Blues' top line of Alexander Steen, Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko was on for all three goals against, meaning a combined minus-9.

What's next: The series remains in St. Paul for Game 4 on Wednesday. Game 5 is Friday in St. Louis.