The Wild's long-suffering skid against the Blues finally took a break.
After dropping five straight to their Central Division rival and seven in a row at St. Louis — not including the playoffs — the Wild threw the Blues a 5-2 curveball on Saturday at Enterprise Center to close out 2022 on an 8-2 run.
Ryan Hartman scored twice off puck-handling gaffes by St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington for his eighth career multi-goal effort, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots in consecutive starts for the first time since Dec. 7-9.
Tied at 1 after first-period tallies from the Blues' Calle Rosen (5 minutes, 41 seconds) and Matt Dumba (13:02), Hartman roofed a rebound over Binnington 1:40 into the second after Marcus Foligno picked the puck off Binnington away from the crease.
St. Louis responded at 5:01 on a Robert Bortuzzo shot, but Hartman intercepted Binnington's clearing attempt and banked the puck into the net off the goaltender 12 seconds later as Binnington tried to regain positioning.
Just 49 seconds into the third period, captain Jared Spurgeon doubled the Wild's lead on a one-timer from the slot before Jordan Greenway capitalized into an empty net with 4:04 left to put an exclamation point on only the Wild's fourth victory in their last 17 matchups against the Blues.
Neither power play converted, with the Wild 0 for 2 and St. Louis 0 for 4. Binnington, who was 7-1-1 in his career vs. the Wild before this game, finished with 27 saves.
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The Star Tribune did not send the author of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.
