Wild lets Blues off the hook, falls 4-3 in overtime

ST. LOUIS – Ahead by a pair of goals in the third period and dictating the action, the Wild looked on the brink of a convincing victory against a key division rival.

"I thought we're gonna win this game," Kevin Fiala said.

Then history repeated itself.

Despite one of its better performances in this series in recent memory, the Wild still couldn't shake off its longstanding funk vs. the Blues and crumbled 4-3 in overtime on Friday night in front of 18,096 at Enterprise Center to fuzzy its playoff outlook with 12 games to go in the regular season.

Not only did St. Louis tie the Wild in the Central Division at 92 points to intensify the battle for home-ice advantage, which goes to the second seed, but the Blues banked even more momentum before a possible first-round clash.

They have now bested the Wild in eight of the past nine meetings and have rattled off six consecutive victories against Minnesota at home.

Currently, the Wild is still in second place because the team has played one fewer game than St. Louis.

"When you get a two-goal lead like that on the road, you hope to close things out," Jake Middleton said. "It's just an unfortunate result to a pretty good road trip."

After a previous miscue of his led to a Wild goal, Robert Thomas scored 1 minute, 27 seconds into overtime to cap off the Blues' comeback.

Thomas' goal was a blistering one-timer off the rush after the Wild had dominated possession to start the extra 3-on-3 session.

"We messed up in overtime," coach Dean Evason said. "Their last two goals in regulation, not great goals by us as a team. We didn't make them earn those three."

Down 3-1, St. Louis' rally began in the third period on a rising shot from Justin Faulk at 4:16. Then at 10:28, Brayden Schenn skated by the Wild's Jordie Benn and cut to the middle before wiring in a backhander at 10:28 for the equalizer.

Seconds before Schenn scored, Ville Husso made two key stops on Tyson Jost and Fiala in tight. Husso totaled 35 saves and Talbot 24 while extending his personal point streak as a starter to 11 games (9-0-2).

"I had a chance in the slot," Jost said. "I tried to sneak it five-hole there, and Kev had one right after there on the backdoor side. It stings, but that's hockey."

The Wild was actually chasing first, falling behind after Pavel Buchnevich's one-timer on the power play 4:36 into the first period. The Blues ended up 1-for-2 with a man advantage, the Wild 0-for-2.

But the Wild didn't exit the period trailing.

With 1:37 left in the first, Fiala put back a Jost rebound for his career-high 24th goal. Jost's assist was his third point on the road trip.

After the puck squirted loose along the boards, Thomas whacked it to the front of the net where Kaprizov roofed the turnover past Husso at 10:40 of the second.

The goal was Kaprizov's 41st of the season, one shy of matching the Wild's record for most goals in a season. But Kaprizov did tie Marian Gaborik for the most even-strength goals at 30.

His tally was part of an effective period by the Wild, and that groove spilled over to the third where Middleton scored his first goal with the team since a trade from the Sharks last month on a shot that caromed off the post and into the net just 18 seconds into the period.

"Best game we've seen him, and he's played really well up to this point," Evason said.

But what was working for the Wild still wasn't enough to hold off the Blues.