Wild’s scoring issues build, and St. Louis reveals leaks in their defense, too

The net probably feels smaller given how much trouble the Wild are having scoring goals, but maybe it looks that way, too.

In their latest lull, they pelted the boards with pucks but rarely hit their target, sputtering 5-1 against the Blues on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center to continue their offensive and overall funk.

This was the fifth consecutive game the Wild tallied two or fewer goals, and they have just one win in that stretch.

“It’s frustrating for you guys to watch,” Mats Zuccarello said. “But imagine being out there and feeling the same way.”

St. Louis goaltender Joel Hofer was the beneficiary, making 17 saves — including six in a row to deny a Wild comeback after they responded to getting behind 3-0, with their only goal from Jake Middleton, his career-high eighth.

Jordan Kyrou recorded a hat trick while four of his teammates had two points apiece for the Blues, who are battling to move up in the Western Conference wild-card race and played like it: St. Louis has a chance at the second seed but remains eight points back of the Wild for the first wild-card berth after this victory.

“We reacted more than we were proactive,” Middleton said. “The position we’re in right now, in the middle of March, we got to be proactive and start playing our game, taking it to teams.

“I don’t know if we’re gripping the stick too tight tonight or what, but we’re going to need better than that.”

Unlike their other recent efforts that were low on goals but not precision, the Wild weren’t as sharp.

They were clunky in their own end, and that gave the Blues room to operate — especially right around goalie Filip Gustavsson, who totaled 22 saves in a third straight start. Just 4 minutes, 17 seconds into the first period, Brayden Schenn tipped down a Cam Fowler point shot and then backhanded the puck by Gustavsson.

“The competitive edge that we play with, we didn’t have enough,” coach John Hynes said. “We had it at times, but we didn’t have it for the full 60.”

The Wild, meanwhile, had looks but lacked the execution to make them count.

Their fourth line was their best in the first, accounting for three shot attempts, but the Wild had more misses (seven) than pucks reach Hofer (five) through the first period.

That didn’t exacerbate the Wild’s issues in the second: Their defense did.

Jake Neighbours doubled the Blues’ lead at 10:51 when he wired in a deflected puck before a net-crashing Kyrou backhanded in a rebound only 1:31 later. Both goals came after the Wild lost defensive-zone faceoffs; St. Louis won 61% of total draws.

“Pinned us in a couple times in our own zone, but I think we had some really good O-zone time, had some great chances, but that’s the difference,” Zuccarello said. “They score, and we don’t.”

Just 25 seconds after Kyrou capitalized, the Wild finally scored on a miscue by the Blues: After Hofer left his crease to unleash an outlet pass, Kyrou gave the puck away to Middleton and Middleton threw a shot past a jumping Marcus Foligno screen that eluded Hofer as he was resetting in his crease.

That seemed to galvanize the Wild, who raised the pressure before the period ended.

BOXSCORE: Blues 5, Wild 1

NHL standings

Zuccarello had a try gloved down by Hofer, Ryan Hartman was hooked while facing an open lane to the net, and Matt Boldy’s shot on the ensuing Wild power play was blocked.

“When it goes bad, everything goes bad,” Zuccarello said. “When it goes good, you can’t even make a mistake. That’s just the stretch that we’re in right now.”

This lone Wild power play carried over to the third period, but the Wild didn’t fare any better and didn’t register a shot on net during the entire two-minute advantage. The penalty kill, though, kept its streak alive, going 2-for-2 to improve to 7-for-7 over the past three games.

It was the offense that needed to catch up to St. Louis, but the two-goal difference was steep considering the last time the Wild netted three was in their 4-3 victory at Seattle on March 4; that’s actually the only game in the Wild’s past 10 they’ve eclipsed two goals.

Instead, their deficit grew 11:30 into the third when Kyrou sped into Wild territory and sunk a wrap-around. Kyrou completed a hat trick into an empty net with 2:20 to go.

Aside from the shots they put on net, the Wild had 20 attempts blocked by the Blues and another 19 miss.

This was St. Louis’ only win in the season series, as the Wild — back when producing wasn’t a problem — had nabbed the previous three meetings.

“It’s not acceptable,” Zuccarello said. “Everyone in here knows it’s embarrassing for us to play like that, but what are we going to say?

“You gotta take it on the chin right now, and it’s not good enough.”