ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ā Jordan Kyrou scored three goals for his fifth career hat trick and the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Saturday night.
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, and Jake Neighbours also scored to help St. Louis win for the third time in five games. Cam Fowler, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich each had two assists, and Joel Hofer stopped 17 shots.
Jake Middleton scored for Minnesota, and Filip Gustavsson finished with 22 saves. The Wild lost for the fourth time in five games.
Schenn gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 4:17 into the game and Neighbours doubled the lead midway through the second period.
Kyrou made it 3-0 as he knocked in the rebound of a shot by Schenn with 7:38 remaining in the second.
Middleton got the Wild on the scoreboard 25 seconds later. Hofer went behind the net to play the puck, and his delayed clearing attempt went to Middleton near the blue line and he skated up and paused before firing the puck in before the goalie could get back in position.
Kyrou restored the three-goal lead with 8 1/2 minutes left in the third, and completed the hat trick with an empty-netter with 2:20 to go for his 27th of the season.
Takeaways
Blues: St. Louis, which began the night two points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference, won for the seventh time in 10 games (7-2-1).
Wild: Minnesota, which has a firm grip on the first wild card in the West, has lost seven of its last 10 (3-6-1).
Key moment
With the Blues leading 3-1 in the third period, Kyrou scored on a wraparound to put the game out of reach.
Key stat
Kyrou became the third St. Louis player to have four or more consecutive seasons with 25 goals in the last 40 years. He joined Brett Hull (10) and Vladimir Tarasenko (5)
Up next
Blues host Anaheim on Sunday, and Wild host Los Angeles on Monday.
___
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
