Wild Warmup: Minnesota at St. Louis, Game 6

The essentials

ST. LOUIS -- With its historic season on the line, the Wild will need its best effort Thursday night in Game 6 against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.
Following a victory in Game 5, the Blues lead this best-of-7 First Round series 3-2 and are just one victory away from closing out the Wild and advancing to face the Colorado Avalanche in the Second Round.
A win by Minnesota on Thursday night would force a Game 7 on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center, which would mark the first-ever series deciding game in downtown St. Paul.
The Wild is 13-11 in its history in elimination games, and was able to secure a victory in a similar win-or-go-home scenario against the Vegas Golden Knights last season.
Last year, however, the Wild won Game 6 on home ice. This time, it'll have to do it on the road, where Minnesota split Games 3 and 4 earlier in the series.

"Our group hasn't panicked all year. And our staff isn't going to panic all year," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "It might be perceived as a panic button from the outside world but again we'll communicate with the players and the team and make sure we're all on the same page before puck drop tomorrow."
Evason indicated Wednesday the Wild will make some changes to its lineup for the first time since before Game 2. Minnesota has iced the same group in each of the past four games after it replaced Dmitry Kulikov with Alex Goligoski.
Minnesota won its next two games after that subtle tweak, but avoided making changes after a loss in Game 4 because Evason felt it would have looked like a panic move.
But with its season on the brink, change seems inevitable.

"It's a great question, because that's what you debate all the time. Do you push a panic button? Is that the perception if you do it, it's like panic. Or are you just doing it to give your team a tweak, a jump start if things aren't going the way you want it?" Evason said. "Things haven't gone the way that we've wanted [in Game 5]. We were 2-2 up to that point. So, will we make some changes? Yeah, for sure. Will we divulge them [on Wednesday]? No.
"We lost the game. We have to make some changes. And hopefully choose the right ones."
Could that mean a change in goal is coming for the first time in this series for the Wild? Cam Talbot has yet to play in any of the first five games, with Marc-Andre Fleury starting each contest so far.
St. Louis swapped goaltenders after back-to-back defeats in Games 2 and 3, inserting 2019 Stanley Cup hero Jordan Binnington into the lineup for Game 4. He's allowed two goals in each of his two games so far and has sparked the Blues' two-game winning streak.
No matter which direction Evason and the coaching staff decides to go, he said they feel comfortable with the choice.
"We trust both our goaltenders. We've seen enough of Marc-Andre Fleury to know, or watched him forever, to know that he's a guy that responds correctly," Evason said. "We also know that Cam Talbot is the ultimate professional. Works his butt off whether he's playing or not playing and would be ready to go tomorrow night as well."
Binnington became the winningest playoff goaltender in Blues history with his win on Tuesday night. He won all 16 of St. Louis' games three years ago en route to the club's first-ever Stanley Cup championship, becoming the first rookie in NHL history to do so.
His two wins this series give him 18 career postseason victories.