St. Louis Blues at Minnesota Wild 10/6/21 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The St. Louis Blues will conclude a back-to-back on Wednesday when visiting the Minnesota Wild after playing on the road Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. St.Louis is 3-2 in the preseason after falling to the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1. St Louis opened the scoring against Chicago with a Torey Krug goal in the first 50 seconds of the first period, but the Blues would not score again.

St Louis goaltenders Joel Hofer and Ville Husso combined to stop 13 of 18 shots faced. Husso stopped 13 of 17 shots faced in net, while Hofer, who took over for Husso at the start of the third period, stopped four of five shots faced in net. St. Louis is scoring an average of 3.40 goals per game, while allowing an average of 3.20 goals per game.

Minnesota looks for its second consecutive victory in the preseason when hosting St Louis on Wednesday. The Wild are 1-2 following a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. Minnesota outshot Colorado 32-16 in the victory. Minnesota opened the scoring with a pair of goals in the second period by Jared Spurgeon and Kiril Kaprizov. Jonas Brodin scored Minnesota’s third goal in the third period.

Minnesota's right winger Ryan Hartman took four shots to lead the Wild, while three others took three shots each. Minnesota goalie Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 15 of 16 shots faced in net with a save percentage of .938. Through the first free games of the preseason, Minnesota is scoring an average of 3.00 goals per game and the Wild are allowing an average of 4.33 goals per game. In each of Minnesota’s two losses during the preseason, the Wild blue line and goalies have allowed six goals.