Blues defeat Wild for fourth victory in five games

ST. LOUIS -- Alex Pietrangelo scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and Jordan Binnington made 35 saves for the St. Louis Blues in a 2-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center on Wednesday.

Pietrangelo had a goal and an assist, and Sammy Blais scored for the Blues (7-3-3), who have won four of their past five games, including a 5-4 overtime victory at the Detroit Red Wings in their previous game.
"A team coming off back-to-backs," Pietrangelo said of Minnesota, which lost 6-3 at the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. "I think we had moments where we controlled the game, but I think we can be a little more aggressive when we have teams that come in late and play. We know what it's like playing those back-to-backs. It's not easy. I said it to you guys in Detroit on Sunday], this is a couple games in a row, we just found a way to win, but I think it's time for us to start stringing things together here."
***[WATCH: [All Wild vs. Blues highlights]*
Devan Dubnyk made 24 saves, and Mats Zuccarello scored his first goal with the Wild (4-9-0), who are 1-8-0 on the road.
"Of course it's concerning," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I mean, 1-8 or whatever we are, anytime on the road, it's concerning. It'd be concerning if it were at home. Whether it's at home or on the road, it's just that 1-8 part people keep looking at.
"I think there's games we've played pretty good on the road and haven't gotten the results we'd like to get, but I think in defeat, this was a really positive thing for us, and if we can build off of this, we've got them again on Saturday and it's not going to be easy. But if we can build off of it, that's what we want to do."

Pietrangelo put the Blues ahead at 1:39 after taking a cross-ice pass from David Perron and skating into the slot. Pietrangelo waited out Dubnyk and Minnesota defenseman Ryan Suter, puck-handled to the side of them, and scored on a wrist shot.
"When whoever it is that's hard on the draw, we have a feeling that they're going to win, we run the play, especially ones we know we have a chance," Pietrangelo said of the sequence that began with a face-off win by St. Louis center Ryan O'Reilly. " … We actually try it more often than people realize. It's nice to see it work.
"... I wasn't going to keep it, but he passed it so darn hard, I had no choice. It kind of helped me. [Dubnyk] dropped pretty early. I think he thought I was going to shoot it. It's a good pass. When you pass it hard like that, it makes it easy for me because I can make the play that I want quickly."
Blais gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle at 6:52 of the second period.

Zuccarello tied it 1-1 at 8:43 after getting to a deflected puck in front.
O'Reilly had a goal overturned for St. Louis at 11:17 of the second after Boudreau challenged for offside.

They said it

"Not the end result we wanted. We played hard, had some chances, but yeah it was pretty special for me to play in front of a lot of friends and family." -- Wild forward Luke Kunin on playing in St. Louis for the first time; the native of Chesterfield, Missouri, had two shots, four hits and two blocked shots in 14:57 of ice time
"We're not going to step over everyone. There's really good teams in this league. I thought it was a good performance by us. Pretty solid play for the most part. There's always ways to improve, and it's nice to come away with two points, and we'll keep looking at ways to improve." -- Blues forward David Perron

Need to know

Wild forward Ryan Donato was a healthy scratch for the second time this season. ... Dubnyk missed the previous three games with an upper-body injury. ... Minnesota forward Kevin Fiala had one shot and played 11:16 after missing the previous four games with a lower-body injury. ... Perron had 12 of St. Louis' 48 shot attempts, including seven on goal, leading the Blues in each category. ... O'Reilly won 18 of 23 face-offs (69 percent). ... Blues forward Alexander Steen had two shots, a hit and a blocked shot in 16:19 after missing practice Tuesday with a lower-body injury. ... Blais played 15:16 after missing the game Sunday with a thumb injury.

What's next

Wild: Host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Blues: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-O, NHL.TV)