DEAN EVASON

Jordan Binnington made 25 saves and the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 in Game 6 to advance to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Comebacks are hard to come back so far in the NHL playoffs after they were so commonplace during the regular season.

The Minnesota Wild are preparing to play in the NHL's Winter Classic for the first time.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — (AP) — The Minnesota Wild signed coach Dean Evason and his staff to multiyear contract extensions on Thursday, a reward for keeping them as one of the top teams in the Western Conference. Evason, 57, is in his second full season as Minnesota’s coach after replacing Bruce Boudreau in February 2020. The Wild are 62-29-7 under Evason, including four winning streaks of five games or more. Assistant coaches Darby Hendrickson, Brett McLean and Bob Woods, goaltending coach Frederic Chabot and video coaches T.J. Jindra and Jonas Plumb also were extended. The Wild are set to host their first Winter Classic on Saturday when they face the St. Louis Blues outside at Target Field in Minneapolis.

New York Rangers coach David Quinn of the New York Rangers stands behind the bench during the team's NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021, in New York. (Bruce Bennett/Pool Photo via AP)The NHL revised its virus protocols in a bid to keep the shortened season on track, but not before a fifth team was idled by COVID-19 problems. Hours after the league announced changes visible in arenas and important behind the scenes, Colorado joined the growing list of U.S.-based teams shut down for virus concerns. Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog joined teammate Tyson Jost on the league's COVID-19 unavailable list Thursday. Bettman said fewer than half the players in protocol have been because of a confirmed positive test and many of those were asymptomatic.

In a unique situation like this, youre going from not playing to playing playoff-style hockey, so youve got to embrace the grind mentally, physically.This is a different kind of grind after four-plus months off the ice. Eddie Olczyk won and lost one best-of-five series early in his playing career with Chicago and remembers the nerves of being 18 and 19 years old in those moments. Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour understands that urgency despite being drafted two years after the NHL moved to all best-of-seven series. His Hurricanes face the Rangers, whose president, John Davidson, won the only two best-of-five series he played in with New York. In a short series, Quenneville said, anything can happen.___AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow contributed to this report.