Kirill Kaprizov nets record-breaking goal but Wild loses again to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – The Wild addressed its toughness, depth and goaltending all with the playoffs in mind, strengthening the factors that usually separate the pretenders from the contenders.

But what the team still hasn't improved is its record against the Blues, and that could be a problem since the Wild seems destined for a first-round matchup vs. its pesky rival.

Despite a late rally that overwhelmed St. Louis at times, the Wild still couldn't defeat the Blues and fell 6-5 in overtime on Saturday in front of an announced 18,096 at Enterprise Center to get bumped to third place in the Central Division.

"We clearly want the end result," coach Dean Evason said. "We don't want to lose hockey games, but we know that we're in games."

Not only did the Blues move into second with 100 points, one more than the Wild, but they also clinched a playoff berth with the victory. The second and third seeds in the Central Division will face off in Round 1.

Aside from sweeping the three-game, regular-season set, the Blues have won five in a row against the Wild and seven in a row at home and are 9-0-1 in the past 10 meetings. Going back over the past 16, they are a dominating 13-1-2.

But the Wild might have planted a seed of doubt with its third-period play, a ferocious comeback in which the team scored four times to send the game to overtime, where St. Louis' Brayden Schenn pounced on a loose puck in front after just 56 seconds.

"It's just something we need to clean up obviously going into the playoffs."

Down 4-1, Ryan Hartman's second goal of the game began to chip away at that deficit — a shot that was deflected in off the Blues' Marco Scandella at 3:09.

Next up was Frederick Gaudreau, who capitalized on a one-timer only 1:32 later for his third goal in as many games.

St. Louis interrupted the Wild's momentum when Pavel Buchnevich's shot clipped the crossbar before dropping into the net at 9:15, but the Wild responded: Foligno converted on the power play with six minutes left in the period before Kirill Kaprizov delivered the equalizer 58 seconds after that.

Kaprizov's goal was No. 43 to set the Wild single-season record after he was tied with Marian Gaborik (2007-08) and Eric Staal (2017-18).

BOXSCORE: St. Louis 6, Wild 5 (OT)

"Just started playing our game," Kaprizov said in Russian through a translator. "Started focusing a little more on what we do right, what we need to do to win the game."

The Wild wasn't as sharp earlier, especially in the second period, when the Blues racked up three goals.

After Ivan Barbashev's goal at 13:03 of the first period, the Wild appeared to turn a corner on Hartman's 30th just 1:41 into the second. But then Vladimir Tarasenko (3:24) and Brandon Saad (13:38) scored off the rush. Between them, David Perron had a sizzling one-timer just as a power play expired at 6:52. St. Louis went 1-for-4 and the Wild 1-for-3.

Wild goalie Cam Talbot finished with 24 saves while extending his career-long point streak to 12 games; he is 10-0-3 over his past 13 starts. Ville Husso had 31 stops for the Blues, who look like a playoff-ready juggernaut after posting their eighth victory in a row.