ST. LOUIS — Welcome to the postseason, Blues fans. Brayden Schenn buried a rebound of a Pavel Buchnevich wraparound 56 seconds into overtime, giving the Blues a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Wild.
The victory clinched a playoff berth for the Blues, who extended their point streak to 11 games (10-0-1) and reached 100 points for the season with a 45-20-10 record. The Blues also had an 11-game point streak (11-0-0) back in the Cup year of 2018-19.
This victory came only after the Blues squandered a lead of 4-1 in the third period.
In a mild surprise, coach Craig Berube made one change in his top three lines Saturday, moving Nathan Walker up to the third line with Schenn and Ivan Barbashev. And moving Jordan Kyrou, who has looked a little lost lately, down to the fourth line.
The moved paid early dividends when Walker came charging to the net, and was shoved into Wild goalie Cam Talbot by Ryan Hartman. While Hartman was regaining his balance, Barbashev pounced on the Walker rebound for his 24th goal of the season, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead with 6:51 left in the opening period.
Defenseman Nick Leddy, who had only two penalty minutes in his first 13 games with the Blues after the trade from Detroit, doubled that total in the opening period. He was called for interfering with Kirill Kaprizov at the 9:13 mark of the first and then was whistled for holding Matt Boldy at 14:49.
But the Blues’ penalty kill unit continued its perfect work in the month of April, killing off both penalties and stretching its streak to 18-for-18 on kills dating back to the end of March.
So it was 1-0 after one, but it became a 4-1 lead after an action packed second period. Hartman scored for Minnesota less than two minutes into the second to tie things up at 1-1. Then the Blues were up to some of their second period hijinks scoring the game’s next three goals.
Vladimir Tarasenko, on an impressive feed from Colton Parayko tapped in a backdoor goal — his 32nd — to make it 2-1 Blues just 1:43 after the Hartman goal.
Next, David Perron scored his 26th goal of the season, with a patented blast from the left circle. It came just after a Blues power play ended to make it 3-1.
And with 6:22 left in the period, Brandon Saad took a pass from Ryan O’Reilly in the slot, split the middle of the Minnesota defense and then beat Talbot with a backhand for his 22nd goal of the year.
At 4-1, it stretched the team’s franchise record to 11 consecutive games with four goals or more scored. It also stretched the Blues’ lead-leading goal differential in the second period to plus-42.
As the period was winding down, Buchnevich absolutely flattened Tyson Jost with a check at center ice. That led to a scuffle at the other end with Barbashev among the featured combatants. The result was extended 5-on-3 time for the Blues, spilling into the third period but the Blues couldn’t cash in.
As the third period started, the Blues quickly regretted not getting something out of that 5-on-3 as the Wild scored two quick goals to make it a 4-3 game. First Hartman scored his second goal of the afternoon and 31st of the season to make it a 4-2 game just 3:09 into the period. Then Frederick Gaudreau connected from the slot. Suddenly, it was just a 4-3 lead for St. Louis and there was still a lot of hockey to be played — 15:19 to be exact.
But just as things were getting tense for the Blues, Buchnevich skated in pretty much on his own and blasted a riser past Talbot for his 27th goal and a 5-3 St. Louis lead with 10:45 left.
But the Wild wouldn’t go away. A Marcus Foligno power play goal cut St. Louis lead to 5-4 with 6 minutes left. Then Kaprizov tied it at 5-5 with 5:02 to play with his 43 goal of the season, tying a Wild franchise record.
