Thomas has 2 points in return for St. Louis; Kaprizov ties Minnesota's franchise goals record
Blues at Wild | Recap
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Pavel Buchnevich scored the go-ahead goal with 3:39 remaining in the third period for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena on Sunday.
Jimmy Snuggerud found the loose puck off the wall and backhanded it to Buchnevich at the right dot, where he scored with a low wrist shot to make it 2-1 at 16:21.
“What I really liked was how poised and calm we were,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The bench and the way we managed the game through three periods, because the second period wasn’t by any means a real good period by us. We had turnovers, but we protected the middle of the ice and we let our goaltender see pucks.”
STL@MIN: Buchnevich finishes Snuggerud’s pass in 3rd period
Buchnevich and Robert Thomas each had a goal and an assist, and Joel Hofer made 22 saves for St. Louis (22-29-9), which had lost four of five, including 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
“We play great third period,” Buchnevich said. “On the road, on a back-to-back, it’s tough. After two periods, it’s 1-1, not a bad result. Third period was our best. We didn’t give out much, score a big goal and shut them down.”
Thomas was playing in his first game since Jan. 10. The forward missed the previous 13 games with a lower-body injury and had been away from the team for personal reasons since Wednesday.
“It’s always tough missing a month,” Thomas said. “I mean, game kind of felt better as the game went on and I felt pretty good.”
Kirill Kaprizov tied Marian Gaborik for most goals in franchise history (219) for Minnesota (35-16-10), which has lost two straight after winning its previous six. Filip Gustavsson made 21 saves.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I thought we had enough looks to be able to get more than one goal. … I thought we did some things that we needed to do. Sometimes you can play a hard-fought game and not find a way to win it.”
Kaprizov put the Wild ahead 1-0 on a power play at 16:09 of the second period. Quinn Hughes sent a saucer pass across to Matt Boldy, who picked it up on his backhand and sent it to Kaprizov at the left post for the redirection past Hofer.
Kaprizov extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, four assists), and Boldy extended his personal point streak to 10 games (eight goals, 11 assists).
“I think we got to the net a lot today, and we have so many chances,” Kaprizov said. “Goalie played pretty good. I think we sometimes can do a little bit more side to side passing, shooting, because we try to shoot just straight sometimes and it just goes a little far away from the net. Just shoot on him and he did a couple good saves, too. Yeah, but I feel like we played pretty good and so many chances.”
STL@MIN: Kaprizov gives Wild lead with PPG in 2nd period
Logan Mailloux responded to tie it 1-1 at 18:05. He scored with a snap shot from the top of the right circle after receiving a pass from Thomas on a rush.
After Buchnevich scored the go-ahead goal, Hofer kept the Blues in front with 34 seconds remaining by stopping a point-blank shot from Vladimir Tarasenko after Wild forward Mats Zuccarello forced a turnover.
Thomas then scored into the empty net with 25 seconds left for the 3-1 final.
“It was a little scramble play, broken play, and then just tried to get out and take up as much space as I could,” Hofer said. “I’m lucky I made the save.”
NOTES: St. Louis ended a 10-game road losing streak. It hadn’t won away from home since Dec. 20 (6-2 at the Florida Panthers). … Wild forward Marcus Foligno did not play because of a lower-body injury.
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