Ryan O’Reilly hat trick highlights Blues' 9-1 rout of Wild

[April 10, 2021]  Ryan O'Reilly posted his second career hat trick and Jaden Schwartz added a pair of goals as the St. Louis Blues routed the visiting Minnesota Wild 9-1 Friday night.

Justin Faulk (goal, two assists), Sammy Blais (goal, two assists), Torey Krug (two assists), Robert Thomas (two assists) and Tyler Bozak (two assists) also had multi-point games for the Blues.

Zach Sanford and Ivan Barbashev also scored as the Blues won consecutive games for the first time since March 19-20.

Jordan Binnington made 24 saves in the victory.

This game was a slump-buster for the Blues. Schwartz scored his first goal since Jan. 26 (a span of 17 games), Faulk scored his first since Feb. 12 after 25 consecutive games without a goal, and Sanford scored his first in 12 games.

Zach Parise scored for the Wild and Kaapo Kahkonen made 29 saves.

The Blues outshot the Wild 18-12 in the first period while racing to a 4-1 lead.

They scored off the rush 92 seconds into the game. Thomas led the breakout, worked a give-and-go with Bozak, then set up Sanford flying in from the left wing.

Schwartz made it 2-0 while cutting through the right circle at the 6:59 mark. Just 34 seconds later, Parise cut the lead to 2-1 with a rebound conversion for his first goal since Feb. 24.

But Schwartz restored the two-goal margin by coming down the middle to convert Brayden Schenn's left-wing pass nearly eight minutes later.

Blais scored 90 seconds later after Faulk raced to negate an icing call, then centered the puck from behind the net.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk (72) shoots and scores a goal against the St. Louis Blues in the second period at Enterprise Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-USA TODAY Sports

O'Reilly made it 5-1 just 69 seconds into the second period. He buried a slap shot driving through the slot.

The rout was on. O'Reilly burst down ice for a shorthanded goal 3 1/2 minutes later. Faulk later made it 7-1 during a delayed penalty on the Wild at the 8:19 mark.

O'Reilly notched his hat trick when he scored from the blue line through traffic midway through the third period and Barbashev made it 9-1 with a power-play deflection with 2:21 remaining.

--Field Level Media
 

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