The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
With 18 games remaining in the regular season, the Wild will see plenty of the St. Louis Blues between now and the second week of May.
That stretch of games begins Friday when the traditional Central Division rivals collide for the first of back-to-back games at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, and the first of three consecutive games overall.
In all, the Wild and Blues will meet seven times over the final 18 games, with all seven of those contests occurring over the next 22 days.
However these games shake out could go a long way to deciding who makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West Division, and in which order those teams make it in.
Minnesota starts the stretch in a strong position, 10 points clear of St. Louis in the standings while also holding one additional game in hand.
But the Wild will see a desperate Blues team over the next little bit, a club that has stumbled to a 3-6-1 stretch over its past 10 games overall and one that sits three points back of the Arizona Coyotes for the fourth and final playoff spot in the division.
A big part of those struggles have come on home ice, where the Blues' record of 5-9-4 is among the worst in the NHL. St. Louis' five victories at home are tied for 29th in the League with Anaheim. Only New Jersey and Buffalo (four apiece) have fewer wins at their home barns.
Only two clubs have posted more than St. Louis' 12 wins on the road this season, but that stat won't apply in this series until it shifts to St. Paul on Monday for the third of three straight games between the teams.
Minnesota did hand St. Louis a loss at Xcel Energy Center last month, a 2-0 game that saw the Wild get second-period goals from Marcus Johansson and Kirill Kaprizov and 37 saves from goaltender Cam Talbot.
That was the lone meeting between the clubs so far this season, but they are about to become much more familiar with one another.
Each team is coming off a victory, with the Wild entering on the heels of an impressive 8-3 victory over West-leading Colorado on Wednesday.
The eight goals by Minnesota tied a franchise record, as the Wild's Kevin Fiala tallied his first NHL hat trick. Kaprizov scored twice in the game, while Jared Spurgeon and Victor Rask each tallied three assists.
Talbot, making his fourth consecutive start, stopped 32 of 35 shots for his 12th victory.
The Blues are coming off an impressive win of their own, defeating the West's second-best team, the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-1 at Enterprise Center.
Goaltender Jordan Binnington established a new career high by making 50 saves, losing his bid for a shutout with under five minutes to play in regulation.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Sammy Blais and Jake Walman scored the goals for St. Louis, which led 2-0 after one period. Walman made it 3-0 13:31 into the third period.
The victory snapped a seven-game winless streak for the Blues that dated back to March 22.
Offensively, St. Louis is led by veteran David Perron. His 25 assists and 38 points are each first on the club. He's also tied with captain Ryan O'Reilly with a club-best 13 goals. In 15 games since returning from shoulder surgery, Tarasenko has three goals and nine points but is a minus-8.
Binnington has seen a bulk of the starts in goal for the Blues this season, posting an 11-11-5 record with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 29 games (28 starts).
