Blues lose out on opportunity to make up ground on Wild

ST. LOUIS -- The Minnesota Wild came up empty on three breakaways, and still won going away.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard's second goal snapped a third-period tie in a 5-2 victory Tuesday night over the St. Louis Blues, handing a team that had climbed back into the Western Conference playoff race its second straight loss.

Despite a strong game from goalie Manny Legace, the Wild kept the Blues from gaining ground in the standings. St. Louis went 7-1-1 in its previous nine and entered only eight points behind eighth-place Minnesota.

"I told our players they've got to be doing something good because they beat big teams: Anaheim, Detroit, San Jose, Buffalo," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "When we didn't get the goals, I was scared because they were coming, they were coming, they were coming."

Pavol Demitra scored twice, including an empty-netter, to help the Wild win for the fifth time in six road games. Brian Rolston and Petteri Nummelin each had two assists for Minnesota.

Eric Brewer and Jay McClement scored for the Blues, whose 10-13-1 record at home is next-to-worst in the NHL. They've lost the last two there, also falling 6-3 to the Predators on Saturday.

"The word to me would be disappointed," coach Andy Murray said. "It's unacceptable when you give one breakaway, and we gave up more than one."

Legace thwarted Rolston and Marian Gaborik on breakaways in the third period alone. It wasn't enough.

"The biggest game of the year, and we just didn't get it done," Legace said.

The Blues have lost two straight in regulation for the first time since they dropped their first two under Murray on Dec. 12-13. St. Louis is 13-6-4 overall under Murray.

Bouchard snapped a 1-1 tie at 10:21 of the third, roofing a shot off a feed from Rolston, and got the only goal of the first period when he took a pass off the boards from Nummelin in stride and skated in alone at 5:43.

It was the only breakaway that Legace didn't stop.

McClement's fifth goal came off a bad angle and rattled into the net off Manny Fernandez's pads at 18:06 to cut the deficit to one. Then the Wild wrapped it up with two goals in the final minute.