Preview: Blues vs. Wild

BLUES VS. WILD - 7 PM

THE MATCHUP

BLUES Oskar Sundqvist stole the show on Thursday, doubling his career goal total with a two-goal performance - his first ever two-goal game - in a 5-3 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Enterprise Center.
"That's the thing that we've seen in training camp," Blues Head Coach Mike Yeo said of Sundqvist. "Last year, we knew every single game that he was going to be good defensively and be reliable… this year in training camp, what we've seen is there's more offense to his game."
Thursday's win gave the Blues their first winning streak of the young season. St. Louis now has points in four of their last five games (3-1-1).
"Not bad. I feel like we're getting closer," Yeo said after the game. "We're not there yet. We're in the process of building and every game is a lesson. There are lessons in your wins and lessons in your losses and we have to make sure we keep learning from that."

Robby Fabbri and Carl Gunnarsson returned Thursday after long absences due to injury. Yeo said he was very happy with both of their games.
WILD Minnesota erased three one-goal deficits to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in their last game on Tuesday night.
"We have good players, and we have a good team," Eric Staal told NHL.com after Tuesday's game. "We feel like we can come back any time, and if we stay with our game and our structure, we have the talent to be able to cash in on opportunities… The good thing is that we believe in each other and we believe we can continue to come back and play, and tonight was about gutting it out and it felt like we deserved to win."
Minnesota has won six of their last seven games entering Saturday's contest with the Blues.
Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are all tied for the team lead in points with 12. Staal ranks fourth with 10 points this season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues were 1-2-1 against the Wild last season. In the last eight matchups with Minnesota at Enterprise Center, the Blues are 6-2-0. The Blues and Wild each have 10 goals from defensemen this season, which ranks second in the NHL.

THEY SAID IT

Mike Yeo
On his former team, the Minnesota Wild
"They're firing on all cylinders. Both sides of the special teams - obviously a big night on the power play the other night, the penalty kill's going good. The defensive game looks good. Offensively a lot of the same tendencies, a lot of the same things and the same people showing up. I just think it's a real good test tonight. They seem to be doing a real nice job with their forecheck. Getting a lot of pucks and bodies to the net, that's always a staple and then their checking game is sound right now and (Devan) Dubnyk's there when there is a breakdown. Not a lot of holes in their game right now."

BLUE NOTES

Vladimir Tarasenko has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his last seven matchups against the Wild, while Jaden Schwartz has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his last eight. Since the start of the 2014-15 season, only Alex Ovechkin (11) has more goals against the Wild than Tarasenko (10)… The Blues have 14 power-play goals, which leads the League (as of Friday). The Blues have power-play goals in four straight games and nine of their last 11… Ryan O'Reilly has points in six straight games… Zach Sanford has points in five straight games (three goals, four assists), which is a career high.