Blues score early, often to hand Wild 9-1 loss

ST. LOUIS — Jaden Schwartz and Ryan O’Reilly each scored twice as the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 9-1 on Friday night.

Justin Faulk and Sammy Blais each had a goal and two assists, and Zach Sanford, Jake Walman and Ivan Barbashev also scored for the Blues, who posted a season high for goals in a game.

Jordan Binnington made 23 saves as St. Louis won its second straight game.

Zach Parise scored and Kaapo Kahkonen made 29 saves for the Wild, who allowed a season high in goals for a game. Minnesota has given up 17 goals in its last three games.

The Blues took control with a season-high four goals in the opening period.

Sanford gave the Blues the lead just 92 seconds into the game. It was just the 14th time this season that St. Louis scored first and it improved to 8-1-5 when taking an early lead.

Schwartz made it 2-0 Blues at 5:59 of the first, ending a 17-game scoring drought.

Parise got the Wild on the board 34 seconds later off a rebound from a shot by Carson Soucy. It was his first goal in 14 games.

Schwartz scored his second of the game with 4:37 left in the first as Brayden Schenn found him unmarked in the slot.

Blais made it 4-1 about 90 seconds later with a one-timer off Faulk’s feed from behind the net.

O’Reilly effectively put it away with two early goals in the second period, including an unassisted short-handed score a few minutes later that made it 6-1.

POWERING UP

The Wild had their streak of four straight games with a power-play goal snapped after going 0 for 2 with the man advantage. Minnesota entered the game second in the NHL with the man advantage since March 10, going 27 percent (13 for 48) in that span.

TAKING A SEAT

Blues F Mike Hoffman and D Robert Bortuzzo were healthy scratches for the second consecutive game. Hoffman, who signed a one-year, $4 million contract at the start of the season, has been scratched in three of the team’s last six games fueling speculation that he could be moved before the trade deadline.

UP NEXT

The teams play again twice in the next three days — back at Enterprise Center on Saturday night and at Minnesota on Monday night.