ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Joel Eriksson Ek and Frederick Gaudreau scored in the first period and the Minnesota Wild ended a seven-game slide by beating St. Louis 3-1 on Tuesday.

Matt Boldy added an insurance goal late and Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves for his first win in eight starts for Minnesota, playing its first game under coach John Hynes.

A former bench boss with Nashville and New Jersey, Hynes took over Monday after the Wild fired Dean Evason.

Colton Parayko netted the Blues goal.

Jordan Binnington stopped 34 shots for St. Louis, including all 17 he faced in a second period owned by Minnesota. The Blues had just five shots on goal in the period.

Boldy scored on a breakaway with 2:52 left in the third, his first goal in 11 games.

Maybe it was as simple as the coaching change, but the Wild played with more energy which led to more offensive chances and better defensive coverage.

Six-win Minnesota began the night 31st in the league at 3.95 goals-against per game, ahead of only four-win San Jose (4.00).

Eriksson Ek scored his team-high 11th goal for Minnesota less than three minutes into the game off a feed from Mats Zuccarello, but Parayko answered midway through the first from the right circle.

Zuccarello has a seven-game point streak and 22 points in 20 games. Only Kirill Kaprizov (24 last season) and Marian Gaborik (24 in 2005-06 and 23 in 2008-09) have recorded more points through their first 20 games of a Wild season.

Taking advantage of a screen by Marcus Foligno, Gaudreau scored his first goal of the season from the right dot late in the first to make it 2-1.

Minnesota has led after the first period in just three of its 20 games, winning each. The Blues fell to 0-8-0 when trailing after one.

The Wild were without Ryan Hartman, the team’s second-leading goal scorer who was suspended for two games by the league for slew-footing Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat on Sunday.

UP NEXT

Blues: Host Buffalo on Thursday.

Wild: At Nashville on Thursday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl