Hoffman scores twice, Blues defeat Wild in OT

ST. LOUIS -- Ryan O'Reilly scored with two seconds remaining in overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

O'Reilly took a drop pass from Brayden Schenn, skated around the net, and lifted a backhand short side over goalie Cam Talbot.
"I had a general idea (how much time was left)," O'Reilly said. "As I was coming out of the zone, I saw we didn't have much time left and still time to make a play obviously, but I knew when I was coming towards 'Schenner' that I've got to finish something at the net here and try to attack. Luckily, the timing was good, and we got it."
Mike Hoffman tied the game 2-2 for St. Louis when he scored his second goal of the night with 42 seconds left in the third period and goalie Ville Husso pulled for the extra skater. Talbot made the save on his one-timer, but the rebound went in off defenseman Matt Dumba.
"You just got to get pucks to the net," Hoffman said. "It's never pretty 6-on-5, the ice is all chewed up, you can hardly make a flat pass. You're just trying to get pucks there and hopefully get a lucky bounce, which we did."

Hoffman was a healthy scratch the previous two games and three of the previous six.
"It's the NHL," the forward said. "It's part of the business that we work in. Those are the things that happen throughout a season. Sometimes, you've got to deal with them."
Vince Dunn had three assists, and Husso made 28 saves for the Blues (19-16-6), who have won three in a row after a seven-game slide (0-6-1).
Nico Sturm and Dumba scored, and Talbot made 27 saves for the Wild (24-13-3), who have lost three of four, including 9-1 here Friday.
"The response was great, absolutely great," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "We competed our butts off. One-hundred percent, it was businesslike. We rolled the lines. Every line did the right things. We got a couple of bad bounces this game. I don't want to say we deserved better because both teams played really well. It was right there. We caught a couple bad bounces, and that was the difference in the hockey game."
The teams will finish a three-game series at Minnesota on Monday.
Dumba gave the Wild a 2-1 lead at 18:12 of the second period when he scored a power-play goal with a one-timer from the left face-off circle off a pass from Ryan Suter.

Sturm scored from the left circle to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 18:25 of the first period after a Jake Walman turnover.
Hoffman scored a power-play goal from the top of the right circle to tie it 1-1 at 3:07 of the second period.
"I think tonight was a step in the right direction," Talbot said. "We needed a response after last game, and we came out and I thought that we did everything right to win the hockey game tonight. They get two of the luckiest bounces I've seen, and then it went into overtime there. We deserved to win that game if it wasn't for those lucky bounces. I thought that we did everything right tonight. We took away their chances off the rush. We were stronger in zone. We picked up the third guy in the slot there. We didn't give them a ton of chances tonight. If we can put this game back on the ice come Monday, we'll have a lot more success."
NOTES: Wild forward Kevin Fiala was scratched after leaving warmups with an upper-body injury. Evason had no update. ... O'Reilly's goal at 4:58 was the latest in overtime in Blues history, one second later than Dunn's goal March 30, 2019, against the New Jersey Devils. ... St. Louis center Robert Thomas (upper body) is week to week after he was injured in the third period Friday.