The St. Louis Blues knew their backs were against the wall. Despite dominating the game, they couldn't even get a point against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
They came into Minnesota knowing they still had a playoff spot in reach, but could no longer give away points. They got off to a quality start.
Like we saw in Pittsburgh, the Blues were the better team in the first period. They might not have had as many chances as they did against the Pens, but Minnesota is a better team than Pittsburgh.
While St. Louis was disappointed with the result after 20, they at least got what they needed out of it. They would have liked to have more than one goal, but at least they went to intermission with the lead.
The goal came at 4:17. Brayden Schenn picked up the rebound off the pad and deposited it on a backhand shot as he was upended.
The second period opened in reverse. The Wild were the better team off of the get go.
Joel Hofer wasn't tested a lot, but the Wild were advancing and pressuring. The Blues had an occasional answer, but they were doing a lot of defending, extending a couple of shifts well over a minute.
Fortunately, the Blues turned things around and struck again. Similar to Schenn's goal, the Blues second one came off another pad save. This time, Jake Neighbours chipped in the rebound to make it 2-0 with about nine minutes left in the second.
St. Louis added another one less than two minutes later. Yet another score came by crashing the net, this time getting Jordan Kyrou his 25th of the year with a rebounder.
The lead was short-lived as Hofer and Kyrou made a mess of things on the next shift. Hofer faked out the Minnesota forecheck and found Kyrou up the middle. Unfortunately, Kyrou turned it over at the blue line and Hofer had taken a poor path back to the net, which allowed the Wild to essentially put it into a partially empty net to make it 3-1 25 seconds after the Blues scored.
The end of the second period was a lot of near misses. Hofer made a great back-door save with the glove. St. Louis clanged one off the post when Zach Bolduc fired one on from the slot on the power play and then Hofer had to make another backside save in the final minute to keep it 3-1 going to intermission.
The Blues turned it back on in the third though. While the Wild were not devoid of chances, it was mainly St. Louis doing the attacking.
The Blues restored the three-goal lead with 8:30 left. Jordan Kyrou turned on the afterburners, drove past the defensemen, and scored on a wraparound to make it 4-1.
St. Louis almost made themselves look silly at the end. Minnesota pulled their goaltender, but the Blues purposely kept looking for Kyrou since he was sitting on a hat trick. Both Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich passed up open chances to pass.
Eventually, he got the hat trick, but it was extremely forced. Nevertheless, the Blues got the 5-1 win which temporarily tied them with Vancouver and Calgary, but the Canucks defeated Chicago to hold their position.
Pro: Kyrou
You'd like a little more consistency from your top guys, but the Blues have always been home to streaky scorers unless your name was Brett Hull. As it stands, Kyrou is likely going to get another 30-goal season.
He was vintage in this game. We saw a little bit of everything.
Kyrou got gritty, forcing his way to the front of the net to score on the rebound for his first. The second was a thing of beauty, showcasing his speed, edgework and hands to tuck it around the post.
Then the third was forced, but at least he tucked it away. He had about three or four cracks at it, but the Wild could likely tell he was the focal point, so good on him for still finishing it.
According to the box score, he only had three shots, so 100% is hard to beat.
Con: Power play
This one is far different from the early-season gripes. The power play looked good and Bolduc was only an inch or so away from scoring.
Nevertheless, like the team as a whole, there is no room for moral victories. You need results.
As it stands, you have to look at 0-2 on the power play as a failure. Both of them came at key spots when the game was still on the line, so getting a goal up a man would have been big.
The way things played out, it didn't matter, but you can't know that during the moment. It would have been nice to get one of those to go.
Pro: Hofer
The Blues defense is just getting it done since the 4 Nations Faceoff. They're limiting shots and getting some blocks.
But, they do still rely on their goaltender. Fortunately, other than the one miscue where Hofer was bumped behind the net, he was on.
18 shots might not seem like a lot, but there were some quality looks. The two back-door saves were key. If either of those goes in, given the score at the time, the end of this game might have been different.
Pro: Schenn
The captain has found another gear. Just a couple of months ago, many of us were wondering if he was aging before our very eyes. Like David Backes before him, he seemed at a loss how to lead his team out of a slump and the production was drying up like water in the desert.
Schenner suddenly has points in nine of his last 14 games with four of those being multi-point games. He's not just getting junk points either.
The captain came up with a beautiful rebound goal to get the scoring started. The Blues have been up and down all year with whether you wanted them to score first or come from behind, but statistically, scoring first gives you the best chance and their leader gave them that chance.
He also got an assist, giving him another multi-point evening.
Overview:
Vancouver beat Chicago, so the Blues being tied for a playoff spot will be short-lived. Nevertheless, it's key for them to simply know that it's right there.
They have to stay sharp and keep collecting points. They needed something out of that Pittsburgh game, but the players can't focus on that even if we fans want to.
Beating Minnesota with the players they had out of the lineup was paramount. They are still a playoff team, but they had a lot missing and losing to that squad would have been another dagger for St. Louis.
I'm still confused as to when the Canadian teams will catch up in games played. I figured that five-day break the Blues had would have caught everyone up, but the other two still have games in hand and St. Louis plays the Anaheim Ducks in under 24 hours.
That's for the league to figure out. The Blues did their job and took down the Wild.
Now, they have to refocus and take down the Ducks. Good or bad, the Blues always seem to find ways to struggle against Anaheim, but they need another win and the Ducks are not a good team.
Keep taking care of business and the playoffs are still available.