The Wild is one loss away from getting bounced out of the playoffs despite a historic performance by Kirill Kaprizov.
In his most dominating display of the playoffs, Kaprizov scored twice to lift the Wild out of an early hole before the team botched the lead and crumbled 5-2 to the Blues on Tuesday in front of 19,197 at Xcel Energy Center to fall behind 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Game 6 is Thursday at St. Louis.
"We felt like we were in a good spot to win that game," Wild alternate captain Marcus Foligno said.
St. Louis racked up four consecutive goals, including two within 1 minute, 28 seconds in the third period as part of a natural hat trick by Vladimir Tarasenko, to rebound from Kaprizov's takeover.
After getting the tying goal with 4:32 to go in the second off a deflection by Brandon Saad, Tarasenko took over. He was left alone in front to fling the puck behind Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at 1:03, had a shot sail in off the rush at 2:31 and then completed the hat trick into an empty net with 1:33 remaining. Fleury ended up with 27 saves.
"We did a few uncharacteristic things," said Wild coach Dean Evason, who mentioned the tip-in by Saad for the second goal as the one that probably hurt the Wild the most. "Normally we're really resilient in that area, real good. We made some mistakes, but they're a good hockey club."
This finish upstaged the clinic put on by Kaprizov earlier in the evening.
Kaprizov is up to seven goals, which is tops in the Stanley Cup playoffs and a new Wild record for most in a series after he exceeded the five tallied by Marian Gaborik and Wes Walz in 2003. He's also only two goals shy of tying Gaborik for the most goals in a postseason at nine. The last players with more than seven goals in any NHL series were Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Washington's Alex Ovechkin, when they both had eight in 2009.
Add in Kaprizov's two goals from his first playoffs a year ago, and only three Wild players have more career playoff goals than Kaprizov's nine: Zach Parise (16), Gaborik (12) and Mikko Koivu (11).
"The goal isn't for a player to play well," Kaprizov said in Russian through a translator. "The goal is for the team to play well, and we didn't win."
Both of Kaprizov's tallies came after the Wild fell behind at 4:53 of the first period on a power-play goal from St. Louis' Ryan O'Reilly, who scooped the puck out of a scramble in front and wired it by Fleury.
- BOXSCORE: St. Louis 5, Wild 2
During the Wild's first power play, the team recovered from a poor start that included icing the puck on a blistering shot by Kaprizov at 13:15 that eluded Blues goalie Jordan Binnington as he was screened by Foligno.
"He wants to win," Evason said of Kaprizov. "He wills the team."
On the team's next power play and from the same left side, Kaprizov quickly unleashed a rising shot at 17:07 as two St. Louis players closed in on him.
But that wasn't even the most impressive part of the play.
Seconds earlier, Kaprizov prevented a Blues clear when he picked the puck off Colton Parayko to send the 6-6 defender spinning to the ice. The Wild finished 2-for-2 on the power play and St. Louis was 1-for-2. Binnington totaled 30 saves to remain undefeated (2-0) since he entered the series in Game 4.
The 25-year-old Kaprizov is only the third player in Wild history to capitalize twice on the power play in a playoff game, joining Andrew Brunette (2003) and captain Jared Spurgeon (2016). This was the winger's second career multi-goal playoff contest and third multi-point effort. Kaprizov is also on a four-game goal/point streak, and the goal tear is tied for the longest in Wild playoff history.
Kevin Fiala assisted on both of Kaprizov's goals and now has three helpers over his past two games while still seeking his first goal of the postseason.
Kaprizov's outburst coupled with a few heavy hits by Foligno had the Wild in control to close out the first period, but the Wild failed to grow its advantage in the second period and that opened the door for a Blues rally that pushed the Wild into a win-or-get-eliminated situation.
"We have an opportunity to play another hockey game," Evason said. "It has to be our best game."