The party will have to start another night.
The Blues opened their season with a thud on Thursday night with a 5-0 blowout loss to the Wild, souring the start to a season that is supposed to elevate expectations and continue the Blues’ path back to contention. Instead, by the time the Wild built a five-goal lead with 12 1/2 minutes left in the third period, Blues fans were headed for the exits.
Ryan Hartman scored twice for the Wild, which also received goals from Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi. Filip Gustavsson stopped all 27 St. Louis shots he faced.
Meanwhile, Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington allowed five goals on 21 Minnesota shots.
The loss snapped a 12-game (15 if playoffs are included) home win streak for the Blues, who had not lost at Enterprise Center since Feb. 22.
The Blues head on their first road trip of the season, facing the Flames on Saturday and the Canucks on Monday.
Losing track
The Wild jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, courtesy of a pair of defensive lapses from the Blues.
Hartman got his first of the night with 4:06 remaining in the first, dancing through Dylan Holloway’s poke check and Logan Mailloux’s slide on his way to tucking the puck between Binnington’s legs. Marcus Johansson collected the puck in the neutral zone after Mailloux swatted it out of the air.
About a minute and a half later, Boldy extended the Wild lead to two by deflecting Kirill Kaprizov’s pass to the slot. Boldy found himself alone in the middle of the ice since Cam Fowler and Robert Thomas were both below the goalline to pressure Marco Rossi.
The Blues actually outshot the Wild 8-7 in the first period, but failed to generate many quality scoring chances.
Second-period onslaught
In the second period, the Blues largely carried play, but again were outscored by two goals. St. Louis outshot the Wild 15-5 in the middle period. They had a 27-14 edge in shot attempts. According to Natural Stat Trick, they had a 1.69-0.71 advantage in expected goals.
But Eriksson Ek struck on the power play, and Hartman found the back of the net for the second time in the game.
Just eight seconds into Brayden Schenn’s hooking penalty, Eriksson Ek found a loose puck waiting in the crease after Boldy rang the post. Eriksson Ek’s goal was Minnesota’s first shot on goal of the period after 12:27 had already elapsed. St. Louis had the first 14 shots of the period but couldn’t solve Gustavsson in the Wild net.
With 2:24 left in the second period, Hartman squeaked a sharp angle shot through Binnington, just moments after he was engaged in a board battle with Colton Parayko. The Enterprise Center crowd wanted a holding the stick penalty called on Hartman, but the arms stayed down and the Minnesota lead ballooned to four goals.
Earlier in the period, Alexey Toropchenko and Nick Bjugstad had rebound chances at the net-front that were denied by Gustavsson. Jimmy Snuggerud’s quick neutral zone pass set up Pavel Buchnevich for a chance in tight, and Robert Thomas eventually drew a penalty.
Jordan Kyrou had a chance on the rush that was partially thwarted by a Jared Spurgeon backcheck.
Rossi tacked on another goal for Minnesota at 7:27 in the third period on a loose puck in the low slot, just after Thomas rang the post behind Gustavsson.
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Matthew DeFranks | Post-Dispatch
Hockey reporter
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