Binnington, Blues top Wild for fourth straight win

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jordan Binnington made 32 saves, and the St. Louis Blues won their fourth straight game with a 4-1 victory against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

"I think it's important we find ways to win," said Binnington, who has allowed one goal on 64 shots in his past three starts. "Stuff's not always going to go your way. We had some timely goals and some timely penalty kills. I think that was huge tonight."
WATCH: [All Blues vs. Wild highlights]
Oskar Sundqvist had a goal and an assist for St. Louis (36-17-10), which has outscored its opponents 13-2 during its winning streak and leads the Colorado Avalanche by three points for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
Marcus Foligno scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves for Minnesota (29-25-7), which had won two in a row and trails the Arizona Coyotes by five points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West.
"I don't want to sound like the ultimate optimist, but we played pretty good," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "That's an extremely good hockey club, obviously, and their goaltender was on, which he's been on for a long time obviously. But no, we had opportunities, we had looks, we had chances. We thought our game was good. But at the end of the day, we didn't get the job done."
Jordan Kyrou gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 11:03 of the first period, getting the rebound of Marco Scandella's initial shot and scoring short side off the shoulder of Dubnyk.

Brayden Schenn made it 2-0 at 14:43 with a snap shot after Jaden Schwartz kept the puck inside the blue line.
Foligno cut it to 2-1 at 1:43 of the second period when his shot at the right post glanced off the mask of Binnington and landed on his right pad before trickling into the net.
"When you have opportunities against that team you have to bury them," Foligno said. "They are just such a smart, in your face team that keeps coming all night."
Sundqvist stole the puck from Wild defenseman Matt Dumba behind the net before skating out in front to make it 3-1 at 9:28 of the second.
"I got kind of a lucky bounce there," Sundqvist said. "I got a stick on it, kind of got left by myself with the goalie, but they were at the moment in the game where they were pressuring hard and getting us hemmed in our zone. It was an important goal for sure."

Ivan Barbashev scored a shorthanded goal at 5:04 of the third period to extend the lead to 4-1.
"It wasn't the most entertaining game I'm sure, but we found a way to win," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "We were very patient in the way we wanted to play. When we had chances to capitalize on their mistakes, we did that. When we're good, that's what we're doing. We're not trying to force the issue. We're patient, we let the other teams make the mistakes, and that's what we're doing."

They said it

"We're a good team, we know that, but there's still a lot of hockey left. We have to keep trying to get better. I think we're doing that. I think our guys are dialed in to doing that." -- Blues coach Craig Berube
"There's a reason they've got the record they have and the success they've had last year. They're patient, they play hard, limit mistakes. Obviously some plays I'd like back personally. It's one of those games we need to be better and they capitalized on us." -- Wild forward Eric Staal

Need to know

The NHL announced during the first intermission that St. Louis would play Minnesota in the 2021 Winter Classic at Target Field on Jan. 1. … The Blues had 26 blocked shots compared to seven for the Wild. … Foligno has 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) this season, one shy of tying his NHL career high.

What's next

Blues:Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)
Wild:Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-O, NHL.TV)