Rookie nets two goals in St. Louis' 5-3 victory

ST. LOUIS -- Rookie David Backes scored twice and Jay McClement had a goal and an assist to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3 Sunday night.

Manny Legace made 33 saves for the Blues, who have won three in a row.

After Marian Gaborik tied the score at 2 with 1.8 seconds left in the opening period, St. Louis pulled away with three goals in the second.

Adam Hall and Pavol Demitra also scored for the Wild, who had won eight of their previous 10 road games but missed a chance to take the lead in the Northwest Division. Minnesota entered the night one point behind both Vancouver and Calgary.

Backes has six goals in 27 games, including four in two games -- with another two-goal game Wednesday at Columbus. He tapped a rebound shot past Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom on a power play to put the Blues ahead 2-0 midway through the first period and scored on another rebound effort off Lee Stempniak's slap shot to make it 4-2 at 7:40 of the second.

Gaborik scored his 19th goal of the season to give the Wild life late in the second period.

Instead of folding, the Blues scored three second-period goals at even strength. Stempniak assisted on two of the goals, and Keith Tkachuk had an empty-netter on a rebound after the puck trickled away from Backstrom on a save for his 20th goal and a 5-2 lead at 16:37 of the second.