Torey Krug scored a goal and earned an assist to lead the St. Louis Blues past the visiting Minnesota Wild 3-1 Saturday.
Alexey Toropchenko and Jake Neighbours also scored for the Blues, who snapped their three-game winless streak.
Jordan Binnington made 21 saves to earn his 138th career victory, which moved him into third place on the Blues’ all-time list behind Mike Liut and Jake Allen.
Jon Merrill scored and Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves for the Wild, who lost their third straight game.
Minnesota lost forward Marcus Johansson to a first-period injury after playing just 2:47.
The Blues struck first, scoring 6:34 into the game. Toropchenko deflected Scott Perunovich’s right point shot off the right post, off Fleury’s skate and over the goal line before Fleury reached back to grab it.
St. Louis had a chance to increase that lead with two power plays later in the first period, including a stretch of 5-on-3 play. But the Wild killed those penalties to keep the score at 1-0.
Minnesota stepped up its pressure in the second period. Binnington kept the Blues ahead by getting his reaching his blocker to stop Kirill Kaprizov’s point-blank shot moving in from the left circle.
The Wild tied the game 1-1 with 9:54 left in the period when Merrill cut to the middle and beat Binnington with a long wrist shot through traffic.
But the Blues regained the lead 2-1 with a power-play goal less than 3 minutes later. Robert Thomas hit Neighbours with a shot from the high slot, then Neighbours gained the rebound and reached the puck around Fleury.
The Wild opened the third period by creating a goal-mouth scramble, but both Kaprizov and Matt Boldy pushed shots wide during the flurry.
With Fleury off the ice for an extra attacker, Krug sealed the victory with an empty-netter, shot the length of the ice with 49 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
