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Blues nip Wild in SO

Jan 15, 2012 - 5:15 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Kevin Shattenkirk scored the game-winning goal in the second round of the shootout, sending the St. Louis Blues to a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild at Scottrade Center.

Shattenkirk skated in on Josh Harding with speed and waited for the Minnesota netminder to make the first move, which he did, and Shattenkirk fired a wrister high to the blocker side for the lone tally of the shootout.

"I watched a little film earlier and I saw that he kind of comes down with his blocker and leaves a little bit on his left side open," Shattenkirk said of his shootout-winner. "As I was coming in I kind of faked the shot and didn't see him bite and I kind of knew that left side might have been open so I shot it as hard as I could."

Jaroslav Halak stopped all three shootout attempts including Devin Setoguchi's chance to end the game for the Blues, who have won five of their last six games.

David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo scored and Shattenkirk added an assist in regulation for St. Louis, which got 29 saves from Halak in the victory.

David McIntyre and Jared Spurgeon lit the lamp for Minnesota, which has lost two straight and five of six. Harding made 47 saves -- a career high -- in defeat for the Wild.

Minnesota opened the scoring at 7:13 of the first stanza when Matt Cullen accepted a slick drop-pass at the right point from Darroll Powe. Cullen then fired a quick shot on net that was tipped home by McIntyre from in close to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

The Blues tied it at one at 8:04 of the second period when Perron picked up a bank-pass in the neutral zone and gained the blue line on the left wing. Perron slowed down and fed it to Chris Stewart trailing the play. Stewart let a wrister go that was stopped by Harding, but the rebound came to Perron, who fired it home.

St. Louis struck again on the power play at 10:39 of the second period. Perron, holding the puck along the left wall sent it to Oshie, who snapped it on goal from the slot. Harding made the save among a mass of bodies, but the puck popped free to Pietrangelo, who chipped it home from right of the net to give the Blues a 2-1 edge.

But, Minnesota had an answer at 16:32 of the second frame with a power play of its own. Spurgeon held the puck at the point following an offensive zone faceoff win and fired a huge slap shot through traffic and past Halak to tie it at two.

"If we keep having efforts like that then we're going to give ourselves a great chance," Wild head coach Mike Yeo said. "That for me is really impressive effort from our guys tonight."

Game Notes

Seven of the last nine matchups between the teams have been one-goal affairs...Blues' forward Vladimir Sobotka played his 100th game in a St. Louis uniform...The Blues own an NHL-best 18-3-3 mark on home ice...St. Louis earned its first shootout win in six tries, while Minnesota drops to 5-5 in shootouts this season...The contests featured 66 penalty minutes between both squads...Both teams went 1-for-6 on the power play...St. Louis will host the Dallas Stars on Monday, while Minnesota will visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.