By WARREN MAYES Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou and Brayden Schenn scored in the shootout, lifting the St. Louis Blues to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
Kyrou and Schenn also scored in regulation as St. Louis (35-29-3) earned its third straight win. Jordan Binnington made 22 stops in regulation and OT.
“We’ve been playing good here the last couple games,” Kyrou said. “It’s obviously the biggest part of the year right now. These are huge games for us.”
The Blues and Wild (33-27-8) are fighting for playoff positioning in the Western Conference, looking to chase down Vegas for the final wild card. The Golden Knights play Sunday afternoon against New Jersey.
“We wanted two points and we got one,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “We didn’t do enough because obviously we didn’t win the game.”
Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which had won five of six. Marco Rossi also scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves through overtime.
Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours came up empty on their shootout attempts for the Blues before Schenn and Kyrou delivered. Matt Boldy scored Minnesota’s only goal in the tiebreaker.
“Disappointed that we gave them a point, but when they made it 2-2, I thought we stuck with our game and we found a way to win in a shootout,” interim Blues coach Drew Bannister said.
Fleury has started Minnesota’s last four games. He made 16 saves in Thursday’s 2-0 victory over Anaheim, earning his 75th career shutout.
“It’s more fun when we win,” Fleury said. “I feel like the shootout was my fault. It’s 1 on 1 and I feel like I should save everybody. I shouldn’t give up two in a row.”
The Blues jumped in front on Kyrou’s power-play goal 5:49 into the second period. Neighbours worked the puck across the front of the crease with a nifty pass to Kyrou, who scored his 21st goal this season.
“That was a helluva pass, pre-scouted that a little bit, got underneath their ‘D’ there,” Kyrou said. “Just tapped it in. I was watching (Fleury) back in the playoffs back in 2012 when I was a little kid. It’s pretty cool to be playing against him now and scoring against him, beating him.”
Thomas picked up an assist for his 300th career point. He has 81 goals and 219 assists.
A quick strike on the first shift in the third gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Schenn scored his 14th at 27 seconds. It was his first goal since Jan. 28.
“It feels good to contribute on the scoresheet,” Schenn said. “I’ve felt like you just have to keep on grinding and working when it’s not going your way sometimes.”
Minnesota got on the board when Rossi scored his 18th at 1:10.
“They scored to make it 2-0 and it was important that we score,” Rossi said. “That gave us some momentum to our side. We kept pushing.”
Kaprizov tied it at 2 with 3:59 left, continuing his strong play.
Kaprizov has nine goals and four assists during a seven-game point streak. He has 35 goals and 41 assists in 61 games overall.
“Kirill is playing really well right now,” Hynes said.
UP NEXT
Wild: Play Tuesday at Anaheim.
Blues: Host Anaheim on Sunday.
