Kirill Kaprizov scored twice as the visiting Minnesota Wild defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 Tuesday night
Ryan Hartman and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild, who are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Filip Gustavsson earned the victory with 22 saves.
Scott Perunovich and Jake Neighbours scored for the Blues, who are 1-5-1 in their last seven games. Jordan Binnington made 24 saves in defeat.
The Blues got top center Robert Thomas back in the lineup after he missed 12 games with a broken ankle. St. Louis started fast and built a 5-0 shots advantage in the first 4:50.
But the Wild reversed the game’s flow and began generating scoring chances. Hartman put Minnesota up 1-0 with 7:36 left in the first period.
He took a pass from Marco Rossi, moved in on right wing and snapped a shot through Binnington from the right faceoff dot.
Both teams had chances early in the second period. Gustavsson stopped Jordan Kyrou from point-blank range on a power play, then Brock Faber rang a shot off the post for the Wild.
Perunovich tied the game 1-1 by joining the rush as the trailer and scoring from the high slot off Kyrou’s pass 4:48 into the second period.
With the teams playing 4-on-4 early in the third period, Binnington denied Boldy’s one-time shot from the right circle to keep the game tied.
Kaprizov put the Wild ahead 2-1 with 13:53 left to play by deflecting Middleton’s shot from the right point.
Neighbours tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal with 9:23 left. He redirected Pavel Buchnevich’s cross-ice pass to the left post.
Brodin gave the Wild a 3-2 lead with 6:16 left when his slap shot from atop the left circle deflected in off Blues forward Nathan Walker.
Kaprizov scored an empty-net goal to make it 4-2 and ice the game.
–Field Level Media
