ST. PAUL, Minn. — Marcus Foligno was reprimanded for his trip against the Blues with a trip to the penalty box, but what happened next was far from a punishment.
Foligno had a front-row seat to not one but two takeaways by Ryan Hartman that helped flip an early deficit into a much-needed 5-3 win for the Wild on Saturday in front of 19,191 at Xcel Energy Center that snapped the team's three-game slide.
Hartman scored the first goal during that penalty kill and then set up another only 20 seconds later for the fastest pair of shorthanded goals in team history.
First, Hartman intercepted a St. Louis pass in the neutral zone and then chased after the carom into Blues territory, eluding the sprawled poke check from goalie Jordan Binnington before dumping the puck into an empty net at 11 minutes, 17 seconds of the first period. Hartman capped off the goal with a celebratory finger wag.
(Backstory: The last time these two teams faced off on March 15 at St. Louis, an 8-5 victory for the Wild, Hartman bumped Binnington after scoring and Binnington decked Hartman. A melee ensued, and Binnington was ejected after almost fighting with Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.)
On the very next shift, Hartman again forced a turnover, this time by hitting Kasperi Kapanen in the neutral zone before scooping up the loose puck and threading a 2-on-1 pass to Sam Steel, who deked the puck by Binnington at 11:37.
Hartman became only the 13th different NHLer since 1933-34 to pick up two short-handed points in 20 seconds or less; this last happened with former Colorado great Peter Forsberg (11 seconds) on Dec. 3, 1995.
Not only did two short-handed goals in a game match the Wild record, a feat that also occurred March 29 in the 4-2 win at Colorado, but the tallies also tied the team record for most short-handed goals in a period.
Overall, the Wild have capitalized 13 times short-handed, which is the most since they also racked up that many in their 2000-01 inaugural season.
That was the Wild's first of only two penalty kills in the game, and it turned the page on a ho-hum start that included a deflection at 5:19 by the Blues' Sammy Blais past Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson.
During the second period, the Wild added to their lead on the power play when Frederick Gaudreau wired in a Gustav Nyquist feed at 14:27. The Wild finished 1 for 4.
Nyquist, who was appearing in his first game with the Wild after a shoulder injury delayed his debut following a Feb. 28 trade from Columbus, also played architect on the team's next goal: Captain Jared Spurgeon backhanded the puck by Binnington with 35 seconds left in the second after a give-and-go with Nyquist. Steel also nabbed an assist for his second point.
That late finish from Spurgeon ended up being clutch for the Wild after St. Louis responded twice in the third period on a shot from Jake Neighbours that pinged off the post before counting at 1:11; Pavel Buchnevich's added a redirect at 7:51. But after a key penalty kill by the Wild, Jonas Brodin flung the puck into an empty net with 1:53 to go.
Gustavsson totaled 37 saves, while Binnington had 24.
Kirill Kaprizov also was in action for the Wild after missing the previous 13 games with a lower-body injury.
He logged 20:26 of ice time and put three shots on net.
This result lifted the Wild to 100 points, the sixth time they've reached triple digits. They have three games left in the regular season.
