Minnesota Wild (0-0) at St. Louis Blues (0-0), 9:30 p.m. (ET)

(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues hope to carry a strong finish to the regular season into the playoffs, as they host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Unlike last season, the Blues enter the 2015 playoffs on a positive note and the franchise hopes that translates into success this time around.

The Blues ended the 2013-14 campaign on a six-game losing streak that dropped them out of first place in the Central Division. Rather than a first-round meeting with, coincidentally, the Wild enjoyed by the division-champion Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis drew the Chicago Blackhawks in the quarterfinals and was eliminated in six games.

This time around, the Blues won five of their final six contests of the season to edge the Nashville Predators for first place and will try to advance out of the first round for the first time in three years.

In the Blues' way will be Minnesota, a team that made the playoffs for a third straight spring despite being eight points out of a wild card spot on Jan. 14. However, that was the same day the Wild acquired Devan Dubnyk from the Arizona Coyotes for a draft pick and saved its season.

Beginning with an 18-save shutout of Buffalo in his Wild debut on Jan. 15, Dubnyk made 38 straight starts for the Wild and went 27-8-2 in that span with a 1.73 goals against average, .938 save percentage and five shutouts.

The goaltender infused the Wild with some much-needed confidence to win games and the club even threatened to move into the top three in the Central Division before settling for the first wild card spot.

All eyes will now be on Dubnyk to see if he can carry over his excellent finish to the regular season into what will be his NHL playoff debut.

Jake Allen started four of the final six games for St. Louis, and he'll get the call over Brian Elliott for the opener of this best-of-seven series. The 24-year-old netminder was 22-7-4 with a 2.28 GAA, .913 save percentage and four shutouts in 37 games. Elliott went 26-14-3 with a 2.26 goals against average, .917 save percentage and five shutouts in 46 games this season. Head coach Ken Hitchcock could make the switch to Elliott early in this series if Allen struggles.

"It's a decision we couldn't be wrong with, to be honest with you," Hitchcock said of choosing Allen over Elliott. "Jake has gotten really hot down the stretch, which was really good for us because we needed it, but just his overall development, and then the way he played in the last month, we wanted to give him a chance to go in the playoffs."

There is no question who is leading the offense as 23-year-old Vladimir Tarasenko paced the Blues with 37 goals and 73 points on the season. Fellow 2010 first-round pick Jaden Schwartz was right behind his fellow winger with 28 goals and 63 points.

That young duo compliments a veteran core of captain David Backes (26 goals, 32 assists), winger Alexander Steen (24G, 40A) and American forward T.J. Oshie (19G, 36A).

The bulk of Minnesota's offense figures to come from the line of Jason Pominville, Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund. Parise led the club with 33 goals and 62 points, while Pominville added 54 points.

If that line can get going as is, it will allow coach Mike Yeo to put 20-goal scorers Nino Niederreiter and Thomas Vanek on another line with center Charlie Coyle to spread out the offense.

Captain Mikko Koivu continues to log heavy minutes, nearly 20 a game, at the age of 32, and while his days as a 60-point producer are gone, the Wild can count on him making calm and smart plays with the puck. He could center a line that features Jason Zucker and Chris Stewart, a trade deadline acquisition from Buffalo.

There to help Dubnyk is workhorse defenseman Ryan Suter, who posted 36 assists, 38 points and a plus-7 rating while leading the NHL with 29 minutes and three seconds of ice time per game. He'll be counted on again to log heavy minutes in this series and he should be both ready and able.

With Suter, and eventually Dubnyk, leading the defense, the Wild ranked sixth in the league with just 2.42 goals allowed per game and topped the NHL with an 86.3 percent success rate on the penalty kill.

Jonas Brodin teams with Suter and was a plus-21, while the pairing of Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella combined to contribute 20 goals and 48 points. Matt Dumba and Nate Prosser should round out the top six.

The Blues and Wild split four meetings this season, with Minnesota going 2-1-1 thanks to a shootout loss back in November.

Parise had three goals in the four-game season series, while Vanek and Koivu both finished with a pair of goals and an assist. Coyle and winger Justin Fontaine both had four points in the four games.

Dubnyk allowed four goals in winning his first two meetings with the Blues this season while with the Wild before getting pulled early in losing the regular-season finale. He is just 2-8-0 with a 4.10 GAA and .866 save percentage in 10 all-time meetings.

Allen is 1-0-0 in two games (1 start) against the Wild while allowing four goals on 50 shots.

Tarasenko led all scorers in the series with five points off three goals and two assists, with Backes adding a pair of tallies and a helper.

Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Saturday in St. Louis.