In St Paul, the St Louis Blues won their 10th straight game, tying a franchise record.
The Blues are the only team to have changed their head coach this season and to any effect.
Jordan Binnington picked up the shutout for the Blues in St Paul – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I think that it’s everybody,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “The defense is doing a great job, they’re big guys getting in the way and big sticks, and then forwards are coming back and goalies are stopping the puck. It’s everybody on the ice, it’s not just one or two players, it’s everybody buying in to doing their job.”
Jordan Binnington made 31 saves for the win, his eighth straight victory.
“Good timing,” Binnington said. “I think the team’s really caught their stride. We’re playing well every game, we’re off to great starts and that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the game. So hopefully we can continue our success here.”
Everybody is getting in on the fun for the Blues as Vladimir Tarasenko extended his point streak to 12 games with a goal.
The Wild dropped to 27-26-6 and are 1-5-3 in their last nine.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s we’re just not doing well enough,” Wild forward Zach Parise said. “It changes night to night. … I just don’t feel like we’re really competing that hard. I mean, we did for a couple games, but for the most part there’s no jam. And I don’t know why. I think at this time of the year it should be and we better find it otherwise we’re not going to get out of this thing. It’s just going to get deeper and deeper.”
Ryan O’Reilly, Vince Dunn and Brayden Schenn also scored for the Blues.
“We’re still not satisfied,” O’Reilly said. “We want to keep climbing. I think we had really high expectations at the beginning (of the season). It took us a while. I think it was frustrating, but we stuck with it. We kept fighting for wins and staying in the hunt. We found our game and it’s been good. We’ve climbed back into this (playoff) race. We’re in a good spot now. We’re going to keep continuing to climb.”
[WATCH: All Blues vs. Wild highlights]
Alex Stalock made 26 saves in the loss.
“Everybody wants to count us out because we’re not playing well right now. But at the same time, I believe we’re going to turn it around. We always have in the past,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We just need that one spark I think. I know I’ve said this a little bit too many times right now, but I still believe. I don’t want to sit there for the last eight weeks, ‘What are we going to do? Are we selling everything because we’re not in first place, because we’re not going to get 100 points?’ The goal is to make the playoffs and then go from there.”
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