ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jaden Schwartz and the St. Louis Blues are racking up points at home.
Schwartz had two goals in the third period, David Perron scored the only goal in a shootout and the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Saturday night.
Paul Stastny also scored as St. Louis stretched its home point streak to nine games and improved to 9-1-2 at Scottrade Center.
“We want to take advantage of these games, divisional games especially,” Schwartz said. “It was good coming back after a loss to get a big win and get some more confidence going.”
Perron made the game-winning move in the fourth round of the shootout after each team came up empty in the first three rounds.
“I just saw the other guys go and actually on the way down was thinking backhand like I like to do,” said Perron, “and then, I don’t know, I tried something different and it went in.”
Jake Allen stopped 28 shots and all four shootout attempts to improve to 10-3-3 on the season and 7-0-2 at home.
Minnesota tied it at 3 with 1:08 left in regulation. After the Wild pulled Devan Dubnyk for an extra attacker, Charlie Coyle scored his eighth goal of the season on a feed from Eric Staal.
“It was a good play by (Staal) to just get control and bring it right to the net,” Coyle said. “It’s a good way to battle back to earn that point, definitely.”
Erik Haula and Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild. Dubnyk had 35 saves while starting on back-to-back days for the first time this season.
“Anytime you can pull the goalie and get a goal, I think it makes you feel a little bit better,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Obviously, we don’t like to give up a lead in the third period, but we got a point on a tough week in a tough building so we’ll take that right now.”
Schwartz put St. Louis in front for the first time with a power-play goal at 4:30 of the third period. Boudreau challenged the call, arguing that Blues forward Dmitrij Jaskin interfered with Dubnyk. But the referee’s ruling that Wild defenseman Ryan Suter pushed Jaskin into the goaltender stood.
“There was some goalie contact so it was iffy, but it’s in the third period,” Boudreau said. “The goal gave them the lead so to me it was worth the gamble.”
Schwartz also tied it at 2 early in the third when he deflected Perron’s shot from the point past Dubnyk for his seventh of the season. Schwartz has five goals and three assists during a six-game point streak.
“He’s really playing well. It’s really good to see,” St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s just tenacious and the skill and the timing of everything. I’m really happy for him. He’s put so much work into it. His level of determination is so high it’s great to see.”
Koivu opened the scoring 11:36 into the first period when he buried a pass from Jason Zucker for his fourth of the season. The Blues tied it when Stastny scored for the third straight game 7:41 into the second.
Haula got the lead back for Minnesota midway through the middle period. He capitalized when Allen was unable to grab Jason Pominville’s backhand into the crease from the corner.
