Minnesota Wild Even Stanley Cup Playoff Series With St. Louis

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- — The scoreless streak for the Minnesota Wild was pushing 70 minutes when they finally caught a break with a broken St. Louis stick.

Joel Eriksson Ek got the game's first goal a few seconds later, and the entire Wild bench jumped up in elation — with a bit of relief.

Kirill Kaprizov had a hat trick and Eriksson Ek scored twice for the Wild, who snapped back at the St. Louis Blues with a 6-2 victory to even their first-round playoff series at one game apiece Wednesday night.

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Frederic Gaudreau and Kaprizov scored on the power play for the Wild, who went 0 for 6 with the man advantage in their 4-0 defeat in Game 1 and were 1 for 9 against the Blues over three regular-season losses. The Wild beat their Central Division rival in regulation for only the third time in 16 games since the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Blues didn't score on Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury until Jordan Kyrou's power-play goal midway through the second period. They lost defenseman Robert Bortuzzo to injury after he blocked a shot with the side of his face in the first.

Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who host Game 3 in St. Louis on Friday night.

The Wild improved to 3-13 in playoff Game 2s. They raised their record to 2-8 in home games in the four postseason series in franchise history they've had with home-ice advantage as the higher seed. ... The Blues fell to 10-2-1 on the road since the trade deadline.

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