St. Louis @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 17, 2019 ) St. Louis 4, Minnesota 0

St. Louis and Minnesota were veering in opposite directions when they squared off a week ago and the result was predictable -- a dominant 4-0 victory by the visiting Blues that extended their winning streak to 10 games. The Wild will get a chance to avenge that lopsided defeat and put an end to their six-game slide at home when they host St. Louis on Sunday.

Minnesota lost nine of 10 overall (1-6-3) coming out of the All-Star break before posting road wins over the New York Rangers and Detroit but now faces a brutal stretch during which it plays six straight games against top-tier opponents. "I saw this 2 1/2 months ago, and it wasn't something that you want to go through, but it either makes or breaks you," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters of the upcoming schedule. "You prove that you can play with the big boys or you get washed away." The Blues had their franchise-record 11-game winning streak halted with Thursday's 5-2 loss at Dallas but rebounded with a 2-1 shootout win over red-hot Boston on Saturday. St. Louis, which snapped a five-game slide (0-4-1) in the all-time series with last week's throttling of Minnesota, improved to 26-14-2 since Craig Berube replaced Mike Yeo behind the bench.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network

ABOUT THE BLUES (33-23-5): St. Louis' offense came from some unexpected sources in Saturday's victory as Alex Steen scored the lone goal in regulation to end a 26-game drought dating to Nov. 30. Tyler Bozak scored on the first attempt in the shootout before Sammy Blais, who was recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League earlier this week and played in his first game since the All-Star break, netted the decisive tally in the sixth round. Rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington's nine-start winning streak ended at Dallas, but he bounced back to improve to 14-2-1 while allowing fewer than three goals for the 14th time.

ABOUT THE WILD (29-27-6): Defenseman Ryan Suter acknowledged that this week's trade of Charlie Coyle to Boston "woke us up" and resulted in the team scoring seven goals over its last two games after consecutive shutout losses. With the onus now shifting to the team's younger players, Luke Kunin, Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and the newly acquired Ryan Donato combined for two goals and three assists in Friday's win at Detroit. “(Boudreau’s) been helping us out a lot and giving us confidence. At the same time, I think we’re 20, 21, 22 years old, so he’s patient for us," Greenway told reporters. “We’re ready for it.”

OVERTIME

1. Wild C Eric Staal ended his 11-game goal-scoring drought on Friday - one night after halting a string of nine contests without a point.

2. Blues C Brayden Schenn (upper body) missed his second straight game on Saturday as he was placed on injured reserve.

3. Minnesota G Devan Dubnyk has yielded a total of three goals while beating St. Louis twice this season.

PREDICTION: Wild 3, Blues 2