The Minnesota Wild (28-27-6) fell 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues (31-26-3) on the road inside Enterprise Center on Saturday night for their third loss in a row in what has been a costly week for a team that hopes to stay in playoff contention.
Alexey Toropchenko got the Blues on the board 6:34 into the contest when his deflection on Scott Perunovich's point shot hit the post, went off Marc-Andre Fleury and barely crossed the goal line. Jon Merrill tied the game — and was the only Wild player to record a point — midway through the middle frame when he beat Jordan Binnington (21 saves) high glove from the middle.
But Jake Neighbors gave the Blues a 2-1 lead from in front of the net with 7:03 remaining in the middle frame, and Torey Krug delivered the knockout punch with an empty net goal with 49 seconds left. The Wild unsuccessfully challenged for goalie interference on Neighbors' go-ahead goal.
Here's what you need to know
• Mason Shaw made his season debut Saturday and played his first game in 336 days after he tore his ACL for a fourth time last season on April 1, 2023. Shaw had nine shifts and played a total of seven minutes and 12 seconds.
• Freddy Gaudreau wasn't available to play due to an upper-body injury, the team announced before the game. Marcus Johansson left the game in the first period and didn't return, finishing with a 2:47 time-on-ice total.
• The Wild are struggling to score and aren't executing when it matters right now with only four goals over their past three games. And it's not because of a lack of chances. For example, on Saturday, the Wild dominated at five-on-five with 66.27 percent of the Corsi share and 73.86 percent of the expected goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Wild also had a 10-3 edge in high danger chances.
• Not only did the Wild fail to execute again, but they were shorthanded often due to poor decision making. The Wild committed seven penalties, including five in the second half of the game when they were down by a goal. While the penalty kill did its job, finishing 6-for-7, the Wild spent too much time killing penalties, plain and simple.
• Fleury once again gave the Wild a chance to win Saturday with 24 saves on 26 shots for a .923 save percentage. Over his last six starts, Fleury has made 158 saves on 170 shots for a .929 SV%. The Wild have gone 4-2 during that stretch. Fleury is simply playing some of his best hockey of the season right now.
What this means
Simply put, this has been a costly week for the Wild, and they just can't afford to lose against the 31st place San Jose Sharks on Sunday. The Wild now sit eight and 10 points behind the L.A. Kings and Nashville Predators, who hold the first and second wild-card spots, respectively.
However, to make matters worse, the Kings have two games in hand on the Wild, and the Predators extended their win streak to eight games on Saturday by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 5-1. While the Wild's season isn't over, time is running out and their losses this week to the Predators and Blues have made their situation even more gloomy.
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