Postgame Hat Trick: Blues 7, Wild 3

On Thursday night, the Wild lost 7-3 to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
Wild.com's Dan Myers provides three takeaways in the Postgame Hat Trick, presented by Associated Bank. Learn more on how to score up to $500 by opening a Wild Checking account.

1. Flipping the script ...
The first period on Wednesday night saw the Wild unable to find a way to solve Blues backup goaltender Ville Husso, who made a number of grade-A saves as St. Louis slowly built an insurmountable lead.
The exact opposite happened on Thursday.
The Wild peppered the Blues net early once again, but this time had better luck against their opponent's starter, Jordan Binnington, lighting the lamp three times in the opening 20.

Binnington did what he could on the Wild's first goal, robbing Nick Bonino on an initial chance, but the rebound trickled over to Nico Sturm, who hammered away at a loose puck for the first goal of the game.
Less than a minute later, it was 2-zip as Ryan Suter fired a puck through a bunch of traffic in front of Binnington.

Near the end of the period, Marcus Foligno channeled his inner athlete, first knocking down a fluttering rebound down with his chest like a soccer player, then whacking it out of mid-air with a baseball swing.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, the script was re-flipped in the second, as the Blues scored early in the period and rode that momentum to four unanswered tallies to take a 4-3 lead into the second intermission. Thaty trend continued in the third as St. Louis extended its lead.
2. A career year.
The goal for Foligno was his second point of the game after he tallied the lone assist on Suter's goal earlier in the period.

It was also his 26th point of the year, which surpassed his previous season high of 25 that he had last year in 59 games played. He finishes the 2020-21 season with just 39 games played.
He's now scored 11 goals in each of the past two years, the second-most he's had in a season. Foligno scored 13 goals in his final season with the Buffalo Sabres in 2016-17, a feat he accomplished in 80 games.
3. Rest for the weary.
In a game that was essentially meaningless in terms of the standings, Minnesota rested several regulars ahead of the start of the postseason.
Among those that did not play in the game were goaltender Cam Talbot, forwards Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala and defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin.