Blues rally to defeat Wild in OT, tie them for second in Central

ST. LOUIS -- Robert Thomas scored 1:27 into overtime to help the St. Louis Blues rally past the Minnesota Wild 4-3 at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Thomas scored on a one-timer from the left face-off circle after a give-and-go with Vladimir Tarasenko.
"It was a good speed play," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "'Tommer' comes off the bench and got the puck in our own zone and he transports it with speed up the ice. … Then 'Vladi' made a great read on it, [he] was looking to shoot, but he saw 'Tommer' slide over there and made a great play."
Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist, and Ville Husso made 35 saves for the Blues (41-20-10), who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games and moved into a tie with the Wild for second place in the Central Division.
"I am proud of our guys, that's a gutsy win," Berube said. "They battled, I just wish that we kept that energy going throughout the second period, but we didn't."

Kevin Fiala, Kirill Kaprizov and Jake Middleton scored, and Cam Talbot made 24 saves for the Wild (43-21-6), who have lost three of the past five games (2-1-2).
"It turned out we played great," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "We didn't get the result we wanted. Obviously, we messed up in overtime. The last two goals in regulation were not great goals by us as a team. We didn't make them earn those two. We have a system in overtime, and we didn't do it. We ended up getting scored on.
"We know who we are. We know how we played. We didn't like the result of course, but we know how we played for the majority of the game."

Minnesota took a 3-1 lead early in the third period when Middleton scored just 18 seconds in with a shot from the left circle for his first point in nine games since being acquired from the San Jose Sharks on March 21.
"It was nice, (but) it's bittersweet because I've been on the schneid for a bit here since I got here," Middleton said. "I felt like I was getting some good chances to help get us on the scoreboard and, fortunately, it was a good goal to start the third period. I try to keep my game pretty simple and just do the right thing, help my partner, help my teammates on the ice, but I did feel I felt like I had some juice tonight. I really wanted to help get to a point with these guys."
St. Louis then came back as Faulk cut the lead to 3-2 at 4:16 on a shot from the top of the right circle, and Brayden Schenn tied it 3-3 at 10:28, streaking down the left wing past Wild defenseman Jordie Benn and scoring on the backhand.
"If you actually look back on the clip, I was probably doing a little bit too much circling in my own end," Schenn said. "Ville made some saves (in tight on Tyson Jost and Fiala) and I had some juice and some energy and kind of picked up a little bit of speed, me and [Ivan Barbashev] 2-on-2. He stayed wide, I just tried to test the defenseman and it worked out that time."
Pavel Buchnevich gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 4:36 of the first period, connecting on a dot-to-dot pass from Thomas on the power play.
Fiala tied it 1-1 for Minnesota at 18:23 when he tapped in a loose rebound in front off Jost's shot from the blue line.
Kaprizov made it 2-1 at 10:40 of the second period, scoring in the slot on a giveaway from Thomas for his 41st goal of the season.

The Blues are now 8-0-1 in their past nine games against the Wild, and have won six straight at home against them by a goal differential of plus-19.
"I don't know. I've seen it go a bunch of different ways," Faulk said. "Sometimes you can get the better of a team in certain situations. And it can be a coin flip sometimes. It just goes one way for a certain amount of time. But I'm sure there's a team in the League right now that has our number pretty good, right?"
NOTES: The Wild are 28-0-3 when leading after two periods. ... Kaprizov needs one goal to tie the Minnesota franchise record for goals in a season, joining Marian Gaborik (2007-08) and Eric Staal (2017-18). ... Talbot has earned a point in 10 straight games (8-0-2), breaking his record previously set Feb. 8-26, 2015, with the New York Rangers. ... Blues forward Jordan Kyrou, who leads St. Louis with 63 points (23 goals, 40 assists), did not play due to illness. ... Husso is 6-0-1 his past seven appearances and 4-0-0 in his NHL career against the Wild. ... Thomas has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) during an NHL career-best eight-game point streak. ... Schenn has a seven-game point streak (nine points; three goals, six assists). ... Buchnevich tied Tarasenko for first on the team with 25 goals and has a five-game point streak (eight points; four goals, four assists). ... Barbashev has a five-game point streak (six points; three goals, three assists). ... St. Louis defenseman Nick Leddy had an assist on Faulk's goal to extend his assist streak to four games (four assists). ... Blues forward Mackenzie MacEachern sustained an upper-body injury in the second period and did not return. There was no update on his status postgame. … Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who assisted on Middleton's goal, has a six-game assist streak (six assists).