Blues fall at Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota coach Mike Yeo knew his team was doing something right with 11 players sitting in the penalty boxes across the ice.

The Wild were leading St. Louis by two goals early in the third period, and the Blues were starting to get a bit chippy.

"To me, I think that that's a great compliment when they go out and try to do the physical stuff," Yeo said after his team's 2-1 victory Saturday night. "I like seeing teams do that because to me it's like saying, 'This is the only way we can get it done.' ... That's how we have to look at it, that the way we're playing the game, we feel we're in control."

It's been a while since the Wild have been able to say that.

Josh Harding stopped 30 shots to win his fourth consecutive start, and Dany Heatley and Guillaume Latendresse both scored for Minnesota, which also won its fourth in a row. That momentum is coming at just the right time, with the team about to embark on a five-game road trip.

"Even if we get four in a row, we're going on our toughest stretch right now," Latendresse said. "Five games on the road against really tough teams. The toughest part for us is we're going to have to bring that game on the road and try to bring that game every night."

Jamie Langenbrunner scored his first goal of the season with two minutes to play. The Blues pulled goalie Jaroslav Halak with 1:26 to go but couldn't get another shot past Harding.

Halak stopped 24 shots but lost his fifth consecutive start.

"His record is not speaking to the kind of goalie he's been," teammate Matt D'Agostini said. "He gave us a chance tonight."

The Blues had a rough time getting the puck out of their zone and lost their third consecutive road game a night after ending a two-game skid in a 3-2 win at home against Vancouver.

"We waited too long to bring the game to our level," D'Agostini said.

Things got chippy toward the end of the second when Langenbrunner sparked a 10-man scrum by pushing Marek Zidlicky into the post after Harding froze the puck.