ST. LOUIS – St. Louis scored two goals within 18 seconds early in the third period to break a tie and added two late empty-netters to beat the Wild 6-2 on Saturday night in the first preseason game for both teams.
Adam Beckman's second goal of the game for the Wild at 4 minutes, 27 seconds tied the score at 2-all. That tie lasted all of 35 seconds.
Ivan Barbashev put the Blue ahead 3-2 on an unassisted goal at 5:02 and teammate Neal James got his second goal at 5:20. He also had an empty-netter for his hat trick.
Kaapo Kahkonen had six saves in 30:25 for the Wild before Andrew Hammond replaced him and stopped 18 shots the rest of the game.
Ville Husso had 10 saves for the Blues in the first period, and Charlie Lindgren, the former St. Cloud State netminder, had 18 stops the final two periods.
