The Minnesota Wild h kept themselves alive in the Western Conference playoff race with some spirited play late in the season, going 6-0-1 since March 3, and 12-4-2 since Feb. 7.

But two of those four losses came in road games against teams in direct competition for a wild card playoff spot, losses to the Predators and Blues, and coach John Hynes was looking for a better effort from his team on Saturday night in St. Louis.
“This isn’t 1 of 82,” he told reporters at Enterprise Center before the game. “This is a game where both teams know what’s at stake.”

It wasn’t perfect on Saturday, but it was better.

Marco Rossi and Kirill Kaprizov scored third-period goals as the Wild rallied from a two-goal, third-period deficit to earn a point in a 3-2 shootout loss that pulled them within three points of idle Vegas for the second wild card spot in the West.

Jordan Kyrou and Brayden Schenn each scored goals in regulation and the shootout Jordan Binnington stopped 22 shots in regulation and allowed only Matt Boldy’s goal in the shootout as the Blues pulled within a point of ninth-place Minnesota.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who starting for the fourth consecutive game, stopped 35 of 37 shots in regulation.

The Wild have won some big head-to-head matchups lately, too, shellacking the Kraken in Seattle and beating the Predators last week at Xcel Energy Center. But when they get close to that last wild card spot, they tend to struggle — especially on the road.
And they did again for two periods against the Blues, who were trying to pull even with the Wild in the conference standings.

The Wild failed to generate much offensive zone time and gave up a lot of odd-man rushes, one of which ended in Schenn’s goal just 27 seconds into the third period, which gave the Blues a 2-0 lead. Schenn skated unmolested from the red line into the left circle before he fired a snapshot that beat Fleury high glove side.

But Rossi pulled the Wild within 2-1 just 44 seconds later after what looked like an apparent turnover in the offensive zone was retrieved by Kirill Kaprizov. Rossi found himself with a 2 on 1 with Mats Zuccarello, but too close to do much but shoot. He found a small opening when he caromed a puck off Binnington’s right pad at 1:12.

Kaprizov scored off a face off play with 3:59 remaining when a centering pass from Mats Zuccarello hit his right skate and deflected it past Binnington. They nearly tied it earlier in the period when Brock Faber passed on target from behind his own blue line to a streaking Matt Boldy for a 1-on-1 chance. But Binnington was able to squeeze Boldy’s point-blank wrist shot between his arm and body.