Blues come back to beat undermanned Wild, 6-3

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Apr 13, 2026

Published in Hockey

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ST. LOUIS — In their third-to-last game of the season, the St. Louis Blues handled an undermanned Wild team in a 6-3 win over Minnesota on Monday night at Enterprise Center.

Colton Parayko, Otto Stenberg, Pavel Buchnevich, Theo Lindstein, Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud (empty-net) scored for the Blues, who scored four straight goals after falling behind 3-1 less than two minutes into the second period.

Joel Hofer made 28 saves.

The Blues were facing a Wild team that rested many of their key players with the playoffs starting within the next week. Brock Faber, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Foligno, Zach Bogosian, Jonas Brodin, Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Quinn Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov all did not play for the Wild on Monday night.

St. Louis, which was eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday, has just two games remaining in the season: on Tuesday vs. Pittsburgh at home, and on Thursday in Utah.

On the board, off the board

There were three goals taken off the board in the second period alone as part of a wild period that also featured four goals, three penalties, 23 faceoffs and lasted 47 minutes.

Minnesota appeared to make it 3-1 at 1:13 of the second period when Hunter Haight muscled the puck into the back of the net, but it was disallowed immediately due to goaltender interference. Haight pitchforked Hofer's left pad before putting the puck over the goalline.

Of course, it didn't take long for the Wild to actually score to make it a 3-1 game. Michael McCarron scored shorthanded on a 2 on 1 rush up the ice (with Haight in the box for tripping) at 1:59 of the second period.

Both of the Blues' disallowed goals were due to successful offside challenges by the Wild.

First, at 3:35, Robert Thomas' apparent goal was wiped off the board. Just after the Blues power play expired, Thomas zipped a pass through the slot intended for Jimmy Snuggerud, but it instead bounced off Daemon Hunt's stick and into the net.

After review, the goal was taken away when it was determined that Dylan Holloway was offside before Snuggerud carried the puck over the blue line.

Like the Wild, the Blues responded after the disallowed goal, this time with two goals in the minute after Thomas' waived off goal.

Stenberg scored at 4:31 on a rebound of Tyler Tucker's shot that bounced off Jake Middleton's stick and Danila Yurov's body to cut the lead to 3-2. Buchnevich tied the game at 3 at 4:31 on a redirection of Jordan Kyrou's pass while driving the net.

The second Minnesota offside challenge negated a Cam Fowler goal at 12:06 when he picked the upper corner on Filip Gustavsson. After review, Pius Suter was deemed offside before he received a pass from Buchnevich.

Lindstein's goal at 16:41 gave the Blues a 4-3 lead as he went to his backhand to roof his second career NHL goal.

Parayko's busy first

Parayko had a goal and a fight in the first period, putting him an assist away from becoming the fourth Blues defenseman with a Gordie Howe hat trick in franchise history.

Parayko scored just 1:22 into the first period on a point shot that trickled through Gustavsson for Parayko's fourth goal of the season. Parayko was goalless in his first 55 games, than had just one goal through 69 games played before scoring three times in the last six games.

With two minutes left in the first period, Parayko fought Yakov Trenin following a hit on Yurov that resutled in a boarding penalty on Parayko. It was Parayko's fourth career NHL fight, and his first fight in any game since he took on J.T. Miller as part of the Canada-United States game last year during the 4 Nations Face-Off.

The previous Blues defensemen with Gordie Howe hat tricks were Dwight Schofield, Barclay Plager and Noel Picard (twice).

Yurov himself scored on the ensuing power play from Parayko's boarding penalty, which sent the Wild into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead. Nick Foligno scored his first goal as a member of the Wild with 5:14 left in the first to tie the game at 1 on a goalmouth scramble.

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