Kaprizov scores twice, Wild defeat Blues

ST. LOUIS — Kirill Kaprizov scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.

Kaprizov has 12 points (six goals, six assists) on a six-game point streak and 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) on a 10-game road point streak.

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Ryan Hartman and Jonas Brodin scored, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves for Minnesota (12-3-3), which is 5-1-1 in its past seven games.

“It’s been a point of emphasis when you’re in tight games, how you need to play,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Not try to open things up, work for your chances, check for your chances. You’ve got to manage the puck, create chances. There have been some of the times this year where we have, and we’ve learned from those. I think the more and more we get in those situations, I just think we’re playing in those situations competitive and working our way through that and I think we’ve played fairly smart. Those are good components in a tight game.”

Scott Perunovich and Jake Neighbours scored, and Jordan Binnington made 24 saves for the Blues (8-11-1), who are 1-5-1 in their past seven games.

“It’s frustrating,” Neighbours said. “I think we’re generating, right. The looks are there. Kind of again the story is we’re not finishing on them. That’s just the way it’s kind of going right now. We just can’t seem to finish. I think there’s a lot of positive things. We’re creating and playing well and we’re in games. We’ve just got to find a way to win.”

Hartman’s first goal in seven games put the Wild ahead 1-0 at 12:24 of the first period. He scored on a shot from the right circle that trickled through Binnington.

Perunovich tied it 1-1 at 4:48 of the second period, beating Gustavsson over his glove with a wrist shot after he joined a rush and took a pass from Jordan Kyrou.

Kaprizov redirected Jake Middleton‘s right point shot at 6:07 of the third period to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.

“We had a good, strong forecheck and we created a lot of chances,” Minnesota forward Marcus Johansson said. “Every forward line has to be good in the O-zone and D-zone.”

Neighbours tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 10:37 when he redirected Pavel Buchnevich‘s pass from the right circle past Gustavsson in the crease.

“Something we looked at in intermission,” Neighbours said. “[Assistant coach Steve Ott] spotted it. We kind of drew up a play for it and they weren’t really expecting the backdoor a little bit, kind of worried about [Kyrou] in the bumper and all the other options ‘Buchy’s’ got over there. Kind of left me alone and made a great play.”

Brodin gave the Wild a 3-2 lead at 13:44 of the third with a slap shot from the top of the left circle grazed Blues defenseman Nathan Walker’s leg and beat Binnington on the short side.

“[Jared Spurgeon] just gave it off to me and I was just trying to go far side,” Brodin said, “but I hit the D-man’s leg there and got lucky.”

Kaprizov scored an empty-net goal at 18:37 for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: Kaprizov had his NHL-leading 12th multipoint game of the season. … Kaprizov tied Joel Eriksson Ek (10 games, Dec. 31, 2022 to Feb. 8, 2023) and Eric Staal (10 games, Dec. 4, 2016 to Jan. 14, 2017) for longest road point streak in Wild history. … Robert Thomas had an assist and played 23:07 after the Blues center missed 12 games with a fractured right ankle. … Brodin played 21:06 and was a plus-2 after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury. … Eriksson-Ek played 19:27 and was a plus-2 after missing one game with a lower-body injury