Blues Beat Wild, Blackhawks Down Red Wings, NHL News

Four days off did little to slow the St. Louis Blues. Well, for most of Sunday night.

Jori Lehtera scored in his return to the lineup and St. Louis held on to beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2. Ryan Reaves, Patrik Berglund and Robby Fabbri also scored for St. Louis, which won its third straight. The Blues have victories in seven of their past eight road games.

St. Louis led 3-0 before two late goals by Minnesota made things interesting.

"We played a textbook game for us for 52 or 53 minutes," said David Backes, who had an assist. "We could have stuck to our principles for another seven, eight minutes and had a phenomenal game. Instead, we had a good game, found two points and we'll move on."

St. Louis, playing its first game since an 11-round shootout win Tuesday in Ottawa, remained two points back of Chicago and Dallas in the Central Division. The Blackhawks beat Detroit 4-1 and the Stars won 2-1 in Ottawa on Sunday. Each team has 15 games left. Chicago is at St. Louis Wednesday.

"This is the playoff stretch right now," Reaves said. "We're playing a lot of teams that we're in the mix with and tied with and chasing, so these are points we've really got to steal and start getting some separation."

Ryan Suter and Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota, which lost for the first time in five games. The Wild remained two points ahead of Colorado for the final Western Conference wild-card spot.

"Things are going in the right direction, so we have to make sure we focus on that coming off this," center Ryan Carter said.

Lehtera was back following a three-game absence after being hit in the face by a puck on Feb. 25. Off a turnover, he beat Devan Dubnyk with a slap shot 7:44 into the game for a 1-0 lead. St. Louis had seven of the game's first eight shots.

Blackhawks 4, Red Wings 1

The special teams were quite special once again. Patrick Kane got the Chicago Blackhawks off to a fast start, and Corey Crawford stepped up when they struggled in the second period.

Not a bad little tuneup for a crucial two-game trip. Kane scored his 38th goal on the first shot of the game and Crawford made 33 saves, helping the Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Sunday.

"That was another fast game against them," Crawford said. "They've got a lot of speed. I thought we got better as the game went on. A big kill to start the third, and some big insurance goals after that."

Artem Anisimov and Duncan Keith each had a power-play goal as Chicago won for the third time in four games, including a 5-2 victory at Detroit on Wednesday. The Blackhawks went 2 for 3 with the man advantage and have at least one power-play goal in each of their last four games.

Next up for the Stanley Cup champions is St. Louis on Wednesday night, and then a visit to Dallas on Friday night. The Blackhawks (41-21-5) and Stars are on top of the Western Conference with 87 points apiece, and the Blues also are in the mix for the Central Division title.

"We've got a lot of division games coming up," said captain Jonathan Toews, who tacked on his 24th goal in the third. "Those aren't going to be easy ones. It'll be good preparation for the end of the year. We don't want to look too far ahead."

Sunday, March 6 Scoreboard

Dallas 2, Ottawa 1

Pittsburgh 6, New Jersey 1

NY Islanders 6, NY Rangers 4

Chicago 4, Detroit 1

Edmonton 2, Winnipeg 1

St. Louis 4, Minnesota 2

Monday, March 7 Schedule (All Times Central)

Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.

Buffalo at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.

Boston at Florida, 6:30 p.m.

Arizona at Colorado, 8 p.m.

San Jose at Calgary, 8 p.m.

Washington at Anaheim, 9 p.m.

Vancouver at Los Angeles, 9:30 p.m.