In St Louis, the Blues came out of the first period on Wednesday with a 3-1 lead over the Minnesota Wild.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and and Jakub Vrana scored a double in the first for the lead.
From there on, it was mostly the Wild scoring, though Buchnevich scored twice over the final two periods for a hat trick, but the Blues lost, 8-5.
The Wild hit for five goals in the middle frame en route to the win, but the period also featured St Louis goalie Jordan Binnington being ejected on a match penalty.
“There was a lot to unpack in that [second] period,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “There was a lot of stuff obviously, but the bottom line is two points.
“We had to stay out of the penalty box. They scored two power-play goals in the first. We had to control that a bit. Once the second period started, we gathered ourselves. We stayed out of the box and played a lot better hockey. We played more in their end and we got rewarded for it.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for the win.
Minnesota stretched their point streak to 14 games, 11-0-3.
“Happy we got the win,” Fleury said. “That’s what the main reason we’re here for. It was not pretty but worked out pretty good.”
Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild in the first period.
Minnesota improved to 39-21-8.
In the second period, the Wild scored three three straight to take a 4-3 lead off goals from John Klingberg, Oskar Sundqvist, and Mason Shaw.
“I think we just kind of lost the net-front battle,” St. Louis forward Brayden Schenn said. “Had some chances to knock guys over or clear the front of the net a little bit. At the same time, when that was happening, they were getting breaks and bounces and guys with pucks going on their stick and having open nets. It’s a combination of a few things: a little bit of sloppy play and not defending as hard as we need to in the second period, and the game got away from us.”
Buchnevich interrupted the barrage to tie the game, 4-4, with his second of the night,.
Ryan Hartman scored the first of his two t give the Wild a 5-4 lead, with the celebration leading to Binnington being ejected.
Alex Goligoski scored off a breakaway in the second to give the Wild a 6-4 lead headed to the third.
“All the right things were said,” Goligoski said. “I think we were frustrated after the first. It seemed like we weren’t really getting the bounces. I felt like we were playing OK, but making these mistakes and they were ending up in our net. It was refocus. We came in here saying all the right things and we were going to win this game. Just go to work, and we got some bounces in the second and kept on it.”
Ryan Reaves and Hartman scored in the third period to push the advantage to 8-3 before Buchnevich finished his hat trick for the 8-4 final.
Binnington got the start for the Blues and yielded five goals, making 19 saves.
He was ejected at 12:25 of the middle frame, the penalty was called after Hartman celebrated a goal and tripped over Binnington’s leg.
“We know the type of player he is. I actually like his game, to be honest,” Binnington said of Hartman. “I’ve played against him … for a while now. He plays the game hard and I respect it and it’s no problem. It’s kind of how it played out and it’s all good.”
Thomas Greiss made eight saves in relief.
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