The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues met up for the fourth time this season and second in St. Paul on Saturday evening, Mar. 15. All three prior meetings had gone in the Wild’s favor, with the most recent, a 6-4 Wild win in St. Paul back on Jan. 7. The Wild’s injury list was still the same with Jonas Brodin, Kirill Kaprizov, and Joel Eriksson Ek out of the lineup. On the Blues’ side, Torey Krug is out for the season after ankle surgery back in Sept., and more recently, Colton Parayko injured his knee and will be out for some time.
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The goaltending matchup was between Filip Gustavsson, who was in net for the third consecutive game for the Wild, and Joel Hofer for the Blues. The game started out pretty evenly, but then the Blues pulled ahead and kept adding to their goal total. The Wild tried to fight back, but only scored one, and the Blues took the win 5-1. This moved the Wild’s record to 37-25-5 and the Blues’ to 32-28-7.
Game Recap
The Blues got the game’s first goal under five minutes into the first period, and their captain, Brayden Schenn, scored it. Cam Fowler and Alexey Toropchenko assisted him to make it 1-0. Despite some chances for the Wild, the Blues held the lead through the rest of the period, and it ended 1-0.
The Blues continued to control in the second period as they added not one but two consecutive goals. Jake Neighbours tallied the first, and Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich assisted him. Jordan Kyrou recorded the second goal of the period, and Schenn and Fowler assisted him to make it 3-0. The Wild answered almost immediately as Hofer had the puck behind his net for an extended time, and two of his Blues linemates collided, which gave Jake Middleton an open net, and he scored the Wild’s first of the night.
The third period started with a 3-1 Blues lead; they added to that lead on a wrap-around goal by Kyrou for his second of the night to make it 4-1. The assists went to Dylan Holloway and Justin Faulk. The Blues added one more before the end as Kyrou scored his third of the night, this time on an empty net. Buchnevich and Thomas had the assists. That was the game’s final goal and secured an even larger win for the Blues.
The Wild will continue their homestand on Monday, March 17, as they host the Los Angeles Kings. The Blues will head back home to host the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, March 16, in the second half of a back-to-back.
