With five regulars resting, Wild falls 7-3 in St. Louis in season finale

ST. LOUIS – The way the Wild looked for its last game of the regular season is not how the team will debut in the playoffs.

Five regulars, including rookie phenom Kirill Kaprizov, 20-goal scorer Kevin Fiala and captain Jared Spurgeon, were scratched Thursday to rest up for Game 1 on Sunday.

But the new-look lineup didn't send the team into the first round with any momentum, not after the Wild coughed up a three-goal lead before collapsing 7-3 to the Blues at Enterprise Center to close out the regular season with back-to-back losses.

St. Louis scored four straight goals in the second period, including two on the power play from Brayden Schenn, to flip a sleepy start into a feel-good finish ahead of the Blues' foray into the postseason as the fourth and final seed in the West Division.

And although the Blues ended up 12 points behind the No.3 Wild (35-16-5), they've had the upper hand all year long – winning six of the eight matchups between these two teams.

Down 3-0 after the first period, St. Louis' rally started in the second.

At 5 minutes, 16 seconds, Zach Sanford scored off the rush – toe-dragging before unleashing the puck top shelf on Wild backup Kaapo Kahkonen. Schenn one-timed in a Ryan O'Reilly feed on the power play at 8:29 and by 11:33, the Blues and Wild were tied at 3 after David Perron's shot from the right faceoff circle eluded Kahkonen.

Another power play goal from Schenn, who cleaned up a Perron rebound in front, put St. Louis ahead 4-3.

That deficit for the Wild only grew in the third, with the Blues capitalizing again on the power play – this time a shot by Perron at 5:50. Jordan Kyrou capped off the scoring with a pair of goals off the rush, at 6:33 and then 15:29.

St. Louis finished 3-for-4 with the man advantage after not receiving a single power play on Wednesday when it shut out the Wild 4-0.

As for the Wild, it went 0-for-2 and the three power play goals it surrendered were the most in a game this season.

The Wild was without key players who could have helped the comeback – or prevented one from being needed in the first place.

Aside from sitting Kaprizov, Fiala and Spurgeon, the Wild also held out Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin – subbing in Zach Parise after he was a healthy scratch the past three games and playing Brad Hunt for his 100th career game with the team and first action since March 24. Dakota Mermis, Kyle Rau and Luke Johnson were also called up from the taxi squad to join the lineup.

Despite the turnover, the Wild dominated early.

Just 3:23 into the first period, Nico Sturm pushed in a loose puck from a Nick Bonino shot for Sturm's 11th goal in his rookie season. The assist was Bonino's sixth point in his last six games.

Only 43 seconds later, a point shot by Ryan Suter sailed through traffic and behind Blues goalie Jordan Binnington to double the Wild's lead.

Before the period ended, Marcus Foligno scored a third goal – taking a rebound off his chest and then batting the puck out of midair and into the net. The goal was his second point of the night after Foligno assisted on Suter's goal, and his two-point night lifted him to a new career-high in points with 26.

The output gave the Wild 60 first-period goals on the season, tying the team with Toronto for the most in the NHL.

But what happened next spoiled the Wild's initial clapback to its loss the previous night to the Blues.

Binnington racked up 16 stops, and Kahkonen had 20 as his four-game win streak came to an end. In his last two games at St. Louis, Kahkonen has been tagged for 16 goals.

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