Six players score, Blues crush Wild 6-3

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Chris Stewart and David Backes scored 23 seconds apart in the second period and the St. Louis Blues dominated the Minnesota Wild 6-3 Saturday night.

Matt D'Agostini, Adam Cracknell, Alex Pietrangelo and Patrik Berglund also scored for St. Louis, which won its second straight.

Antti Miettinen scored twice and Marek Zidlicky once for Minnesota, winless in eight straight for the first time since a nine-game streak from Jan. 19-Feb. 8, 2002. The Wild have been oustcored 37-12 during this stretch of futility.

The Blues held a 47-16 shots advantage, two nights after holding Edmonton to 12 shots in a 4-0 win.

Stewart gave the Blues a 3-2 lead at 7:09 of the second period following his own shot to poke a rebound past goaltender Nicklas Backstrom.

Backes, who grew up about 20 minutes from the Xcel Energy Center, came off the bench behind the Minnesota defense, took a long outlet pass from Pietrangelo and beat Backstrom on a breakaway for a 4-2 lead.

The Wild had four shots at that point.

Pietrangelo scored midway through the third on a shot from the blue line that went off Backstrom's glove and over the line and Berglund one-timed a slapper from the slot less than 3 minutes later. Miettinen added his second late in the period.

Things looked good early for Minnesota when Zidlicky completed a pretty passing play with Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette at 3:13 — the first time in eight games Minnesota scored the game's first goal — but D'Agostini tied the game midway through the first with a one-timer from the left circle off a rebound.

Miettinen converted a pass from Brunette for a power-play goal 5 minutes later for a 2-1 lead. It was just Minnesota's second power-play goal in 22 chances over eight games. The other came on a penalty shot.

Cracknell intercepted a clearing attempt by Jared Spurgeon and tucked it behind Backstrom for a 2-2 game late in the opening period.

NOTES: Brunette's assist on the first Minnesota goal gave him 700 career points. He is the 29th active player to reach that mark. ... T.J. Oshie, a Warroad, Minn. native, had an assist. He has one goal and six assists in his past seven games. ... The teams meet again Tuesday in St. Louis. ... Zidlicky returned after missing four games with a hamstring injury.