The St. Louis Blues entered the opening round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs as overwhelming underdogs, going up against a Minnesota Wild team expected to challenge for the title of Western Conference champions.

Instead, the Blues advanced to the next stage and a date with the Nashville Predators following a five-game series win over head coach Mike Yeo's former club.

Here are three players who came up huge along the way:

Jake Allen

This series was essentially stolen by the rejuvenated Blues goalie.

At one point this season, a struggling Allen was afforded time to step away from the crease and clear his head. He was able to find his game with the help of assistant general manager, goalie coach, and NHL legend Martin Brodeur, and, as a result, couldn't have been much better against the Wild.

Over the five games, Allen faced 182 shots and stopped 174 of them - good for a .956 save percentage.

Put another way, Minnesota averaged 36.4 shots per game - second only to Columbus' 38.8 - while St. Louis ranks last among all 16 playoff teams with 26.8.

With the ice seemingly tilted toward the Blues' zone, Allen was without question the difference in this series.

Vladimir Sobotka

The St. Louis Blues weren't sure they'd ever see Sobotka again, and now there's no telling where they'd be without him.

Unwilling to settle for a deal awarded to him in arbitration back in 2014, the forward chose instead to ply his trade in the KHL over the past few seasons. His hiatus, however, ended on April 6, when he decided to return to the club for the balance of this season, while also signing a three-year extension.

Sobotka scored a goal in his lone regular-season appearance, and went on to play a big role in St. Louis' win over the Wild.

In those five games, he recorded one goal and two assists, beautifully setting up the series-clinching goal by Magnus Paajarvi. He also came up big in the faceoff circle when called upon, and logged heavy minutes in all situations.

The Blues were wise to lock him up upon his return, because his stock as a free agent would have been way up based on his playoff performance to date.

Jaden Schwartz

A talented young winger led the Blues in scoring in this series, but not the one you might expect.

No, it wasn't Vladimir Tarasenko who did most of the damage offensively, but rather Jaden Schwartz, whose five points were more than any other player on the team.

More to the point, Schwartz's two goals were both of the game-winning variety, with a late third period snipe in Game 2 putting the Wild in a hole they wouldn't climb out of.

He fell short of his previous regular-season career highs this year, but might just have saved it all up for when it mattered most.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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