The St. Louis Blues closed out their longest road trip of the season in emphatic style.
They shook off a tough loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday with a solid effort all-around on Saturday, led by Jordan Kyrou's fifth NHL hat trick and his second straight against the Minnesota Wild in a 5-1 win at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.
The Blues remain two points behind the Vancouver Canucks, who defeated the the Chicago Blackhawks 6-2 late Saturday night, but St. Louis (32-28-7) are tied in points with the Calgary Flames, who have two games in hand (Vancouver has one) and two points ahead of Utah Hockey Club (one game in hand).
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, Cam Fowler, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich each had two asssists, and Joel Hofer, making his first career start against the Wild (37-25-5) made 18 saves.
The Blues closed the trip with a 3-2-1 mark and now will play nine of their final 15, including on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks, a game originally slated to begin at 5 p.m. (CT) but has now been moved back to 7 p.m. due to travel complications by the Blues returning from Minnesota.
The Blues, for the first time in the history of matchups with the Wild, were faced with being swept in a season series.
Since the Wild made its way into the league in 2000-01, playing its 24th season in 2024-25 and had never swept the Blues in a season series.
Minnesota won the first three matchups (4-1 in St. Louis on Oct. 15, 4-2 in St. Louis on Nov. 19 and 6-4 in Minnesota on Jan. 7) and were looking for their first-ever sweep of the Blues but it was not to be.
Minnesota was missing some weaponry in this game (Kirill Kaprozov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin), but the Blues were missing Colton Parayko on the back end.
By Montgomery throwing Hofer at Minnesota, a goalie the Wild had never seen before, there's the notion of having to get used to someone's tendencies rather than facing Jordan Binnington, someone Minnesota is quite familiar with. And yes, Hofer was one zone exit away from possibly getting a shutout that resulted in a Jacob Middleton goal that made it 3-1 at 12:47 of the second period, but Hofer was solid otherwise.
Let's dive into Saturday's Three Takeaways:
* More net front presence, middle lane drives — Despite outplaying the Penguins on Thursday, including owning a 36-22 advantage on the shot clock, the Blues and coach Jim Montgomery lamented that there wasn't enough of a net front presence in front of Tristan Jarry, not enough of a middle lane drive to the net that had made them so successful in going 7-2-2 the previous 11 games.
Consider the message delivered.
Schenn's goal at 4:17 of the first was a perfect example of what the Blues needed against a stingy defensive-minded team that has had issues scoring goals.
The Blues had an extended shift in the Wild zone, one of many throughout the first period, and were able to control the zone enough that a pair of line changes were made, but when the puck was played to Fowler at the left point, he threw it towards the net knowing Schenn was going there. The Blues captain was able to maneuver past Frederick Gaudreau, collect the loose puck and backhand it in past Filip Gustavsson for a 1-0 lead.
On Neighbours goal, same thing. Robert Thomas wins the face-off back high, puck goes low, quick pass to the slot for a one-time shot by Thomas, and Neighbours is the backside forward driving the net and yes, it was a fortuitous bounce off a block by Zach Bogosian, but if Neighbours isn't driving the net, he doesn't score, but he did and potted the puck to make it 2-0 at 10:51 of the second period.
And for Kyrou to kickstart his night to make it 3-0 at 12:22 of the second, it was another face-off win high, puck worked low, thrown to the net, but Kyrou is the middle lane driver crashing to the goal and he made no mistake when Gustavsson pushed the rebound right into his pathway.
* Holding another opponent under 30 shots — It says that defense pays, and for the Blues, it paid off once again on Saturday.
For the 12th straight game, they held an opponent under 30 shots and have allowed an average of 23.4 shots per game in that stretch, which is second in the NHL behind the Florida Panthers (23.2).
The last team to get 30-plus shots: the Panthers, who had 34 on Feb. 6. But including that game, the Blues allowed 30 or more in four of the five prior to this run of 12 straight.
Quite frankly, Saturday was a defensive masterclass of not allowing traffic, no middle lane drives and taking away shooting lanes with 19 blocks.
* Kyrou owning the Wild — Coming into the game, Kyrou had 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 22 career games against the Wild, and he loves playing at the Xcel Energy Center.
With Saturday's performance, it stands at 15 goals, 11 assists in 23 games now.
He made it 4-1 at 11:30 of the third period with a breakout of the puck, then slicing past Declan Chisholm and Vinnie Hinostroza, flying around the right edge with speed and catching Gustavsson over-commiting before wrapping the backhand in to make it 4-1.
And in style, Kyrou scored into the empty net at 17:40 to make it 5-1. And it could have been more with Kyrou having 12 shot attempts in the game but six of them were blocked.
Kyrou's last hat trick also came against the Wild in the very same building, on March 23, 2024.
* Click here to see what Montgomery and players had to say after the game.
