ST. LOUIS — In a game where so much was made of coach John Hynes reuniting last year’s dominant Kirill Kaprizov-Joel Eriksson Ek-Matt Boldy line with Eriksson Ek back after a brief injury, it was defenseman Jonas Brodin providing the winning goal after missing the two previous games with an injury.
Brodin scored with 6:16 left to snap a third-period deadlock and lift the road-dominant Wild to a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. Filip Gustavsson was terrific again, especially early, and made 22 saves to improve to 9-3-2.
Welcome back, Jonas Brodin 💣
Clutch goal to beat Binnington short side and give the Wild the lead pic.twitter.com/wzUovhyVD8
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 20, 2024
Nineteen seconds after the Wild’s slumping power play didn’t score for the 26th time in their past 29 chances, defenseman Jake Middleton choked up on his stick, fired and Kaprizov redirected the shot for a 2-1 third-period lead. It extended Kaprizov’s road point streak to 10 games, tying the franchise record held by Eriksson Ek and Eric Staal.
Kaprizov later scored his 13th goal into his league-leading fifth empty net. He’s now one off Nathan MacKinnon for the scoring (33 points).
Jake Neighbours scored the first power-play against the Wild in six games to snap a 17 for 17 run to tie the score at 2-2 before Brodin’s winner.
The Wild improved to 12-3-3 and are tied with Washington for second in the NHL with 27 points.
They also have a league-high 18 points on the road and are tied for the most road wins (eight).
The Wild spent the night in St. Louis and are scheduled to fly Wednesday afternoon to Edmonton to continue their three-game road trip Thursday night against the defending Western Conference champion Oilers.
Kirill Kaprizov gives Minnesota a 2-1 lead with his 12th goal of the season. Middleton’s 10th point #mnwild pic.twitter.com/PVTVJi9bkd
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 20, 2024
Rossi continues his even-strength scoring
Marco Rossi’s 13 points at even-strength is second on the Wild behind Kaprizov’s 23. He also now has a point in 13 of 18 games this season.
On a new-look second line with Marcus Johansson and Ryan Hartman, Rossi assisted on Hartman’s fourth goal of the season and second in two visits to St. Louis after a puck got past Brock Faber at the point.
Rossi hustled into the neutral zone and just in front of the red line by the near boards, Rossi stick lifted Dylan Holloway, then used his butt to shield the puck. He sent the puck ahead into open space for Hartman, who got by Colton Parayko and squeezed a shot through Binnington’s legs.
Ryan Hartman works around the defender and opens the scoring up for Minnesota!#mnwild pic.twitter.com/H4ab0Xlw4N
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 20, 2024
It was the Wild’s league-leading 12th time this season they opened the scoring. They’re 10-1-2 in those games, tied for the Rangers for the most among all teams when scoring first.
The line had a strong game and put together a strong shift before Brodin’s goal, although they were on the ice for Hibbing native Scott Perunovich’s tying goal in the second period.
Trenin’s lack of offense is a concern
Before the season, Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz told The Athletic about Yakov Trenin, “It wouldn’t surprise me if he got 20 goals and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got 10 just because he gets streaky. He’ll score. He may go dry.”
Well, the Wild will settle for one.
In 18 games, the Wild’s four-year, $14 million free-agent signing has no goals and one assist. His defensive metrics are sterling, but it’s unsettling how ineffective he is offensively.
In the first period, the Wild had a long shift by the Rossi line. Johansson changed for Trenin, and Trenin immediately entered the offensive zone and gave the puck away. The Wild got a good stick at the blue line to turn the puck back into the Blues’ end and complete their line change, but Trenin again gave the puck away.
In the second period, at the start of a shift, Trenin used his big reach to create what could have been a two-on-one, but he didn’t have anything close to the foot speed to create anything and eventually lost the puck. His skating has been a common trend because plays just seem to die on his stick.
Tuesday was his third consecutive shotless game and eighth of the season. He has 14 goals in 18 games (0.77 a game).
He’s been largely good on the penalty kill this season, but it was his clear that was intercepted by Robert Thomas en route to Neighbours’ tying goal.
Pavel Buchnevich finds Jake Neighbours in tight for a power play goal, 2-2 game!#STLBlues pic.twitter.com/oVqoPr8K8f
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 20, 2024
Jones debut comes ‘funny full circle’
With Mats Zuccarello hurt and Liam Ohgren back in Iowa to get top-six minutes and No. 1 power-play unit minutes, the Wild recalled Ben Jones and Devin Shore from the AHL.
Shore was Eriksson Ek’s insurance against the Blues and was scratched, while Jones played his first NHL game in almost three years. In fact, his last NHL game Nov. 22, 2021, was also in St. Louis while a member of the Vegas Golden Knights.
“I think it was three years to the day (Nov. 17, 2021, vs. Nov. 17, 2024) that I got the call in Vegas,” Jones, 25, said. “So, funny full circle here.”
Jones, who skated with Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov on the fourth line, had two goals in four preseason games for Minnesota. He has a knack for producing, Hynes said, and was coming off seven points in his last two games with Iowa.
“Pretty honest 200 foot. Simple,” Jones described himself. “Not going to kind of wow you. But reliable and simple, solid game.”
Jones played 11 shifts, blocked a shot, had a hit and one shot on goal.
(Photo: Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)
