Blues score 5 unanswered goals, rally past Wild

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues scored five straight goals and rallied for a 6-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center on Monday.

Otto Stenberg, Pavel Buchnevich, Theo Lindstein, Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud scored in succession, and Joel Hofer made 28 saves for the Blues (35-33-12), who have won two straight games but were eliminated from contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Saturday.

“We spoke about playing the right way and that playing for our fans is a privilege,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said, “and we didn’t like our intensity in the first period. We wanted the intensity to go up. I’m not sure it got up right away, but that Stenberg goal seemed to pick it up, the fans got into it and they gave us life, and we seemed to create a lot after that. Technically, we could have had five goals that (second) period.”

Nick Foligno had a goal and an assist, and Filip Gustavsson made 16 saves for the Wild (45-24-12), who are locked into the No. 3 seed from the Central Division.

“You’re a professional and you still understand that there is a job to do,” Foligno said. “We’ve got (one) game left to feel as good as possible going into the postseason. That’s on everyone’s mind, whether guys are in or out of the lineup, it’s about a job you have to do when you step out there and that’s where our focus is, make sure we’re fine-tuning our details. … We really want to fine-tune our mental approach and our physical approach.

“Playing a long time, you realize these moments matter.”

Minnesota rested several veterans ahead of the playoffs, including forwards Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman, as well as defensemen Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian.

The Wild recalled forwards Hunter Haight, Ben Jones and Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and defenseman Matt Kiersted from Iowa of the American Hockey League to play in the game Monday.

“Some of these guys that (weren’t) in tonight, they needed it, and some are banged up,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said, "but the players that (were) in, it’s no different. It’s different opportunities for guys, get their games going and play the way we need to play.”

Colton Parayko gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 1:22 of the first period on a slap shot from the blue line that trickled through Gustavsson’s pads.

Foligno tied it 1-1 at 14:46, scoring his first goal in 16 games for Minnesota since being acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 6. Hofer made the initial left pad save on a backdoor attempt byYakov Trenin, but Foligno put it away with the second chance. 

Danila Yurov put Minnesota ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 19:13. He beat Hofer from the left circle with a wrist shot after a feed from Vladimir Tarasenko.

McCarron’s short-handed goal made it 3-1 at 1:59 of the second period. He and Foligno broke out on a 2-on-1 following a Robert Thomas turnover, and McCarron got the pass in the slot for the wrist shot glove side.

Thomas looked to cut it to 3-2 at 3:35, but the goal was overturned after a successful challenge by Minnesota for offside.

Stenberg did cut it to 3-2 at 4:04, following up a Tyler Tucker shot that caromed into the left circle. Buchnevich then scored his 200th NHL goal to tie it 3-3 at 4:31. He finished in tight with a snap shot off a Jordan Kyrou pass.

“It feels like it takes so long, that’s how it feels,” Buchnevich said of his milestone goal. “I’m just more happy for Jake that he finally score. He worked hard and got his goal. I’m just more happy for him more than myself.”

Cam Fowler looked to put the Blues up 4-3 at 12:07, but Minnesota again successfully challenged for offside.

Lindstein’s second NHL goal gave the Blues a 4-3 lead at 16:41. He took Jonathan Drouin’s pass in alone and lifted the puck over Gustavsson’s glove on his backhand to put the Blues ahead for good.

“Just a bit of a wake-up call,” Neighbours said. “It could be hard to come out in these games when you’re eliminated, and they’re sitting nine regulars and it has that feel to it, but you’ve got to find a way as a player to come out with a little more energy and passion, and play for the fans and play for the logo. That was kind of the message after the first and I thought guys did that.”

Neighbours scored to push it to 5-3 at 3:05 of the third period. He came out of the penalty box and got the puck from Buchnevich for a snap shot that hit the right post and went in off the skate of Gustavsson.

“It feels nice, been a while, obviously,” Neighbours said of his first goal since Feb. 2, “but it doesn’t really change anything. It just shines a light on how long I didn’t score.”

Snuggerud had an empty-net goal at 16:56 for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: Wild defenseman Viking Gustafsson-Nyberg made his NHL debut and played 21:57. He signed a two-year, entry-level contract April 9 after playing at the University of Connecticut. … Buchnevich has 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 24 games against Minnesota. … Thomas has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in his past nine games. … Kyrou had an assist to give him 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in 26 games against the Wild.