Minnesota United takes Game 1 with Seattle Sounders; St. Clair makes a save in penalty shootout
Dayne St. Clair made a key save in the shootout and Minnesota United beat the Seattle Sounders 3-2 on penalty kicks on Monday night after the two clubs dueled to a scoreless draw in regulation of the best-of-three first-round opener.
Seattle hosts Game 2 on Nov. 3.
St. Clair stayed central to deny Álex Roldán's penalty kick. Then Seattle midfielder Cristian Roldan hit the crossbar in the fourth round.
Kelvin Yeboah, Nectarios Triantis and Joaquín Pereyra each made a penalty kick for Minnesota. Julian Gressel had a chance to win it for Minnesota, but his attempt went off the post.
Then Seattle midfielder Danny Leyva also went off the post to hand it to Minnesota.
Last year, Minnesota won two penalty kick shootouts in a first round series to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.
Seattle entered with a commanding 12-3-2 record over Minnesota in regular-season play, but Minnesota won both prior matchups against the Sounders this year.