Blues damage Wild’s playoff hopes Wild take big hit in Western conference race

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In St Louis, the Blues hung a 3-1 loss on the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

Jordan Binnington made 21 saves  in the win.

“It’s important. We’re going on a road trip right now and we’re a few points back, so whenever you’re at home, you try to collect as many as you can,” the Blues’ Tory Krug said. “Important for our group, even our group confidence and psyche moving forward. It’s important for us.”

The Blues improved to 31-26-3.

“I think for us, in the past, we haven’t played well in these games,” St. Louis coach Drew Bannister said. “By no means do I think we played our best, but I do think we found a way to win in the end. That’s an important game for us, and that’s an important two points, and we’ve got to build momentum off this going onto the road.”

Alexey Toropchenko scored at 6:34 of the opening stanza to stake the Blues to a 1-0 lead.

“[Brandon Saad] went to the corner, and he turned around and found Scotty on the top of the blue line,” Toropchenko said. “I just parked myself in front of the net, just kind of grabbed two guys behind me and saw Scotty was looking at me. I was trying to get the stick to the right position, so it worked.”

Minnesota dropped to 28-27-6 off their third straight loss.

“It was definitely the effort and the competitiveness you need to win,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Unfortunately, tonight, we had lots of chances, lots of offensive zone time, but we couldn’t find a way to put it in.”

The Wild’s Jon Merrill tied the game, 1-1, midway through the second period.

The Blues responded to the Wild’s tying goal with a strike by Jake Neighbours  at 12:53 of the second for a 2-1 advantage.

“I thought it was offside originally, maybe that’s what they were challenging for, but when I saw the replay, I was pretty confident it was a goal, yeah,” Neighbours said. “… That one was just lucky. It probably would have went in if it didn’t hit me, but it hit me in the leg and was kind of just sitting there for me. It’s just the benefit of being around the net. Sometimes you get some lucky bounces.”

Torey Krug hit an empty net with 49 seconds left on the regulation clock for the 3-1 final count on the scoreboard.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves in the loss.

“We had a lot of penalties tonight,” Fleury said. “It’s tough to get momentum, tough to get chances when you’re always defending.

“Guys played well. They played pretty good. They got a good bounce on that goal there. It’s tough to get some offense when you’re playing on the PK.”