ST. PAUL, Minn. – Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron scored and Jake Allen made 32 saves and the St. Louis Blues edged the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Allen was 10.5 seconds away from a second straight shutout before Wild center Mikko Koivu threw a puck on net from near the blue line which bounced past Allen.
Allen's scoreless streak had reached 159 minutes, 8.5 seconds as St. Louis won back-to-back games after losing five in a row.
Perron scored his 13th goal of the season and Tarasenko added his 29th of the season to help new Blues coach Mike Yeo to his first win against his former team.
Devan Dubnyk made 18 saves for Minnesota, which has lost two of its past three games.
With Allen leading the way, St. Louis continued its steady defensive performance under Yeo, who took over for Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1.
The Blues allowed 3.12 goals per game, 28th in the league, with Hitchcock at the helm. They entered play on Tuesday giving up 1.79 goals per game under Yeo, which was second in the league in that span, with a league-best .940 save percentage.
Much of the success has come on the road, as St. Louis has four shutouts in the past 10 road games.
Yeo was on the bench for four previous games against Minnesota this season as Hitchcock's assistant, but it was his first game as head coach against the team he got his first head coaching job and where he spent five-plus seasons.
Minnesota had plenty of chances on Tuesday, outshooting the Blues 33-20, but couldn't beat Allen until Koivu's shot seemed to surprise Allen.
Perron opened the scoring with just his second goal since Jan. 15 when he tipped a shot past Dubnyk from Colton Parayko. Tarasenko, who has a goal in three straight games against the Wild, scored in the third.
NOTES: Minnesota D Matt Dumba was scratched because of an illness. Gustav Olofsson was recalled from the American Hockey League and took Dumba's place in the lineup. ... The Wild announced D Christian Folin would miss a minimum of three weeks with an upper-body injury after he lost his footing and slammed hard into the boards during Sunday's home game. ... St. Louis announced it signed F Tage Thompson to a three-year, entry-level contract. Thompson, the team's 2016 first-round draft pick, just finished his sophomore season at the University of Connecticut with 19 goals and 13 assists in 34 games. ... With an announced attendance of 19,124, Minnesota topped the 13-million mark in attendance at the Xcel Center. The team's all-time attendance is 13,016,939 in the 703 games since the franchise began play in 2000-01.
UP NEXT
Blues: Return home for a two-game set beginning Friday against Anaheim.
Wild: Embark on a five-game road trip, their longest of the season, on Thursday at Tampa Bay.
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