Put the red flag away and turn off the alarm bells.
Wild rallies from two goals down to beat St. Louis 4-3 in overtime
Wild erases 2-goal deficit, capped by Fiala's winner.
May 2, 2021 at 5:05AM
The Wild is back.
After looking like it lost its mojo and had squandered the momentum that helped it lock up a playoff berth early, the resilient and resolute team from pre-clinch resurfaced Saturday, when the Wild rallied for a 4-3 overtime win against the Blues in front of 3,000 at Xcel Energy Center to avoid dropping three straight for the first time this season.
"It speaks to the guys in the locker room to just once more get the job done," Nico Sturm said. "This is the kind of game that we need to play in two weeks when playoffs roll around."
Kevin Fiala capped off the comeback 2 minutes, 16 seconds into the extra period, a rising one-timer for his second career overtime goal and 11th point over his past seven games. He also set up the game-tying goal, finding Jonas Brodin for a point shot through traffic with one minute to go in the third. Nick Bonino was posted up as the screen in front of St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington.
"Right when it went through my legs you know it's in because Binnington was looking to the left," Bonino said. "Just a great shot and a great play by them up top."
This photo finish was put in motion earlier in the third when Sturm deflected in a Brodin shot at 14:09 after getting promoted to the Fiala and Victor Rask line.
"We thought maybe he could just give us some drive, some north drive in the third period, simplify, and he did that," coach Dean Evason said. "Fortunately, he got a good tip. But he pushed the pace, got in on the forecheck for that group, and it worked out."
The Wild needed a better push in the third period after tripping into a two-goal hole twice earlier in the game.
St. Louis jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on two goals in 1:49.
An unsuccessful clearing attempt by Ian Cole rolled right to Jordan Kyrou, who wired the puck by goalie Kaapo Kahkonen with three minutes left in the first. And then Sammy Blais skated from the corner and into the right faceoff circle to go top shelf.
The Wild answered back in the second on Mats Zuccarello's first goal in seven games, a one-timer off a Kirill Kaprizov backhanded pass at 6:53. Zuccarello later passed off to Fiala on the game-winning goal.
But later in the period, the Blues reinstated the two-goal cushion after David Perron put back a rebound.
"We were obviously frustrated after two periods," Sturm said. "It seemed like everything was kind of clogged up out there and the pucks weren't really bouncing our way."
Perron nearly made it 4-1 before the second ended, but Kahkonen made one of his better saves of the game — extending his glove to keep the puck out. He finished with 28 saves, and Binnington had 34.
"There were a couple points where he had some unbelievable saves to allow us to hang around when we didn't have our best stuff," Evason said of Kahkonen.
The Wild was in a familiar position the previous game, clawing back in the third to force overtime before the Blues won back 5-4. In the game before that, it was St. Louis that came from behind to stun the Wild 4-3 in regulation.
Those losses dimmed the team's post-clinching glow, but the Wild has six more games to sustain that spark that has been reignited.
"It doesn't matter if we clinched the playoffs already," Brodin said. "The last games here it's going to be important to get the wins and get confidence going into the playoffs."
For the Wild, four points behind the league-leading Jets, this will be their most anticipated matchup against a division rival since they lost 2-1 to the Stars on Nov. 16.
