Thomas Greiss made 35 saves for his 16th career shutout as the visiting St. Louis Blues blanked the Minnesota Wild 3-0 on Sunday in St. Paul.
In his first appearance since Dec. 20, Greiss made 23 saves in the third period to seal the victory for the Blues — who have earned points in 11 of their last 14 games.
Brayden Schenn scored twice for St. Louis and Brandon Saad had a goal and an assist.
Filip Gustavsson made 21 saves for the Wild, who suffered just their third regulation loss in their last 13 games.
The Wild and Blues tightened up their defense after allowing a combined 11 goals in losses the night before.
The Blues converted half of their four-minute power play during the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Colton Parayko fired a one-time blast from the left circle, then Jake Neighbours slid the long rebound to Saad on the weak side for his open-net goal.
That was Saad’s sixth goal in his last six games.
Late in the period, Greiss stopped Matt Boldy’s break-in — after Boldy zig-zagged through three Blues defenders — then he slid to his left to stop Kirill Kaprizov’s follow-up from the right circle.
The Wild applied pressure late in the second period, but Greiss made a right pad save to thwart Connor Dewar’s point-blank shot to keep the Blues on top.
Minnesota carried that pressure into the third period, forcing Greiss to make good saves on Calen Addison, Alex Goligoski, Jared Spurgeon and Frederick Gaudreau, among others.
After the Blues killed off Schenn’s tripping penalty, Schenn jumped out of the penalty box to convert a two-on-one rush with Saad to make it 2-0 with 6 minutes left to play.
The Blues killed off a late power play with the Wild playing six-on-four with Gustavsson pulled for an extra attacker. Then Schenn tacked on an empty-net goal with 6 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
