scheduled tribe. LOUIS ( Associated Press) — Jordan Kairou and David Perron scored twice, Jordan Binnington made 28 saves in his first start this post-season, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Sunday in a best-of-seven Western Conference I also won. Series at 2-2.
Ryan O’Reilly scored a goal and two assists, and Perón also made an assist for St.
Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy scored for Minnesota. Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, before returning to St. Louis for Game 6 on Thursday.
In the second period, Kairou and Peron broke the 1-1 draw with a difference of 54 seconds.
Peron converted the lead on a shot that pushed Fleury into the net. Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno tried to stop the puck from rolling across the line, but he flipped it behind Fleury and into the net.
Cairo took his second of the game to take a 3–1 lead with a shot from Ryan O’Reilly, who assisted in both goals in the second round.
Bold cut the deficit to 3-2 in the final period with a scramble to net 2:39.
Perón added a blank net goal with 1:58 remaining, and O’Reilly had a power-play goal with 1 minute remaining to cap the scoring.
Binnington, who had lost the start of his previous nine seasons, secured his first playoff win by defeating Boston in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. He denied Kaprizov from point-blank range at the end of the second period. Binnington held off Matt Zucarello on a 2-on-1 breakout in the middle of the final period.
Binnington was removed by Ville Husso, who scored nine goals on a combined 59 shots in Games 2 and 3 after dismissing Wilde with 37 saves in the opener.
Coach Craig Berub said he went with Binnington as a hunch.
St. Louis struck first when Cairo pounced on his rebound of 4:19 just early in the game.
Kaprizov scored his fifth goal of the series with a pass from Jared Spurgeon to draw 1-1, with 5:54 remaining in the opening period.
Kaprivoz, who recorded the first hat-trick in post-season franchise history in Game 2, was wide open in the slot. His five goals put him along with Wes Walz and Marion Gaboric for the most goals in a series. Walz and Gaboric scored five times in the 2003 Western Conference semi-final against Vancouver.
injuries
The Blues did not have defenders Tori Krug (lower body), Nick Leidy (upper) and Robert Bortuzo (upper). They also lost Marco Scandella to an injury early in the first period. Scott Perunovic made his first appearance since 15 January. Rookie Steven Santini made his playoff debut.
consistent success
Minnesota and St. Louis are two of only four teams to have made the playoffs nine times in the past 10 seasons. Pittsburgh (10 times) and Washington (9) dropped out of the list
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