Minnesota Wild reach 100 points with 5-3 victory over Blues

The Wild finally had Kirill Kaprizov in action and Gustav Nyquist, too, but the team's best work came while down a player.

After the Wild scored twice in 20 seconds while shorthanded to turn the page on a ho-hum start, a late penalty kill preserved a much-needed win, their 5-3 decision against the Blues on Saturday in front of 19,191 at Xcel Energy Center snapping a three-game slide.

"This is the time of year we want to play our best hockey," Nyquist said. "So, we want to start now and not wait until the playoffs start."

These were the Wild's only penalty kills of the night, and both were vital to lifting the team to 100 points and keeping it in the race for the Central Division crown.

Trailing St. Louis by a goal after Sammy Blais deflected in a puck 5 minutes, 19 seconds into the first period, the Wild transformed their deficit into a lead thanks to Ryan Hartman.

He intercepted a Blues pass and then chased after the carom, eluding the sprawled poke check from goalie Jordan Binnington (25 saves) before dumping the puck into an empty net at 11:17. Hartman capped off the goal with a celebratory finger wag.

(Back story: The last time these teams faced off on March 15 at St. Louis, an 8-5 victory for the Wild, Hartman bumped Binnington after scoring and Binnington decked Hartman. A melee ensued, and Binnington was ejected after almost fighting with Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.)

On the very next shift, Hartman hit Kasperi Kapanen to force another turnover before scooping up the loose puck and threading a 2-on-1 pass to Sam Steel that he buried behind Binnington at 11:37, giving the Wild the two fastest shorthanded goals in team history, 20 seconds apart.

"They had a couple careless plays on the drops," Hartman said. "Just trying to take advantage of it."

Hartman became only the 13th different NHLer since 1933-34 to pick up two shorthanded points in 20 seconds or less; this last happened with former Colorado great Peter Forsberg (11 seconds) on Dec. 3, 1995.

Not only did two shorthanded goals in a game match the Wild record, a feat that also occurred March 29 in the 4-2 win at Colorado, but the tallies also tied the team record for shorthanded goals in a period.

"Just huge plays at crucial moments in the first period," Frederick Gaudreau said.

Overall, the Wild have capitalized 13 times shorthanded, which is the most since they also racked up that many in their 2000-01 inaugural season.

During the second period, Gaudreau wired in a Nyquist feed at 14:27 on the power play (1-for-4) and with 35 seconds left, captain Jared Spurgeon tucked a give-and-go pass from Nyquist behind Binnington. Steel also picked up his second point on the play.

"I was just trying to play my game out there," Nyquist said, "and just trying to get going again after a long period off. So, it felt good to finally play hockey again."

But the Wild's cushion shrunk in the third period when a Jake Neighbours shot pinged off the post before counting at 1:11 and Pavel Buchnevich added a redirect at 7:51 behind goalie Filip Gustavsson (37 saves).

Cue the penalty kill.

Gaudreau and Spurgeon teamed up with Marcus Johansson and Jonas Brodin to outlast all two minutes of a Blues power play just past the midway point of the period. Then with 1:53 to go, Brodin sunk a 164-foot empty-netter after a key block by Nyquist.

"All four on the ice were just gassed at the end," coach Dean Evason said. "They just stayed in the lanes and had good sticks and were able to get it out. Our penalty kill was great."

Nyquist ended up playing 11:50, while Kaprizov logged 20:26 and put three shots on net after missing 13 games with a lower-body injury.

"You want to feel good about your game going into the playoffs, and that's kind of what we've said in this room to try to work on here the last three games," Nyquist said. "That's what we're going to try to do."