By DAVID SOLOMON Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ryan Hartman scored twice in the second period to help the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Saturday night in their first meeting since the first round of the playoffs last season.
Jordan Greenway, Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon also scored for the Wild, who lost that postseason series in six games. Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves.
“I feel like we owed them,” Fleury said. “It doesn’t fix last spring, but it’s still nice to get a win here.”
Minnesota has earned at least one point in eight of its last nine games.
The Wild won a regular-season game in St. Louis for the first time since Nov. 11, 2018.
“Not good enough tonight,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “That’s the bottom line. We made too many mistakes tonight to win the hockey game, end of story.”
Calle Rosen and Robert Bortuzzo scored for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington stopped 27 of 31 shots, falling to 7-2-1 in 10 career starts against the Wild.
“Knowing where we’re at statistically and a division opponent, that shouldn’t be a game where passion needs to be injected into it,” Bortuzzo said. “I didn’t think it was early, but I thought we lost a little bit of that as the game went on.”
The Blues pulled Binnington with 5:49 remaining. Greenway scored his second goal of the season into an empty net 1:45 later to give Minnesota a three-goal cushion.
Spurgeon gave the Wild a 4-2 lead with his fifth goal 49 seconds into the third period.
Bortuzzo scored his first of the season 5:01 into the second but Hartman followed with his second of the game and fourth of the season 12 seconds later to put the Wild back up 3-2.
“It felt good,” Hartman said. “I’ve had not a whole lot of chances the few games I’ve been back. The opportunity to score tonight, there was a couple, and they went in. It feels good and I’m happy to contribute again.”
Hartman scored his first goal of the game early in the second after Frederick Gaudreau intercepted the puck from Binnington behind his net to put the Wild ahead 2-1.
“The two goals, I think, impacted us in the second period,” Binnington said. “I’ve got to be better. I was too casual, and it came back to bite me in the butt. It happens.”
Dumba scored his fourth goal of the season 13:02 into the first period to tie it 1-all.
“We started a little bit sleepy,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “I don’t think anything changed. I think we just got into the game, and got our legs under us. The guys are always positive on the bench even though the start wasn’t what we wanted, and we were able to find ourselves, obviously, pretty quickly.”
Rosen scored on a feed from Robert Thomas 5:41 into the game. Rosen has scored in each of his last three games, and has a career-best five goals in 20 games this season after scoring just two in his previous 38 NHL games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko left with an upper-body injury after blocking a shot with his right hand in the first period. Tarasenko missed Thursday night’s game against Chicago due to illness.
CHIP-INS
St. Louis defensemen have seven goals over the team’s last five games. … Binnington played in his 28th game, tying Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers for most by a goaltender this season. … Minnesota has earned a point in 24 of its last 38 games against St. Louis.
UP NEXT
Wild: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
Blues: Play at Toronto to open a four-game trip Tuesday night.
