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Blues, Wild square off in St. Paul

Mar 26, 2011 - 3:16 PM (Sports Network) - With both club's playoff chances nearly at a dead end, the St. Louis Blues and the sliding Minnesota Wild will meet tonight for the opener of a home-and-home series at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild had a solid chance at making the postseason a few weeks back, but Minnesota's current seven-game slide (0-6-1) has basically ended those dreams. With 78 points, the Wild are 11th in the Western Conference and are nine points out of a playoff berth with just eight games left.

St. Louis, meanwhile, is three points in back of the Wild in 13th place in the West standings.

This year's season series between the Wild and Blues consists of a pair of home-and-home sets. Minnesota swept a pair of games from St. Louis on Feb. 11 and 12 and the Wild have taken three in a row and four of the last five meetings with the Blues.

St. Louis, which will host the second test of this two-game series Tuesday at Scottrade Center, has dropped four in a row, five of six and 11 of its last 13 games in St. Paul.

However, while Minnesota hasn't won since March 8, the Blues are coming off a victory in their last trip to the ice, as Jaroslav Halak needed to make just 12 saves for his sixth shutout of the year in a 4-0 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers.

Halak recorded his 15th career whitewash, improving to 23-20-6 this season and is expected to get the start tonight.

T.J. Oshie notched a goal and assist for the Blues. Matt D'Agostini, Chris Stewart and Adam Cracknell supplied late tallies for the home team.

"It was a game that could have gone either way in those first two periods. We didn't play our kind of hockey in those two periods," said Blues head coach Davis Payne. "Good thing we did in the third."

The Blues have a dismal 12-20-5 record as the visiting team this season compared to a 21-12-4 record on home ice.

The Wild, meanwhile, last played on Tuesday when they set a dubious club record with a seventh straight loss. Prior to this swoon, Minnesota's record for consecutive setbacks came during a six-game slide from Dec. 5-17, 2008.

Minnesota was blanked for the third time during the skid when it was dealt a 3-0 loss by the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Rookie stalwart James Reimer made 29 saves to anchor the Leafs to the win at Xcel Energy Center.

Niklas Backstrom allowed all three goals on just 17 shots for Minnesota, which has been outscored 31-9 during the losing streak.

"That's the way it's going right now," Minnesota center John Madden said of the losing streak. "We outshoot them and we have three breakaways. We had a lot of scoring chances but just no goals."

Tonight marks the end of a four-game homestand for the Wild, who have dropped three straight and five of their last six games as the host. Minnesota is 17-15-5 in St. Paul this season.