St. Louis Blues beat Minnesota Wild 6-4 in coldest outdoor game in NHL history

Jordan Kyrou had two goals and two assists in a five-goal second period for St. Louis, and the Blues cruised through the coldest outdoor game in NHL history to beat the Minnesota Wild 6-4 in the Winter Classic on Saturday night.

The official faceoff temperature was minus-5.7 degrees, the first of 33 outdoor games the league has played with a temperature below zero.

David Perron got the Blues on the board in the first period. Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev and Torey Krug joined Kyrou by scoring in the second, and Robert Thomas pitched in with two assists. Jordan Binnington made 29 saves for the Blues. They are 11-1-2 in their last 14 games against the rival Wild.

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Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists and Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist for the Wild. They trailed 6-2 at the second intermission and benched goalie Cam Talbot after 22 saves in two periods in favour of Kaapo Kahkonen.

Rem Pitlick and Kevin Fiala also scored for the Wild, who pulled to 6-4 on Fiala’s 6-on-5 goal with 5:38 remaining after Kahkonen was pulled for the extra skater.

Due to virus outbreaks on other teams, the Wild had four games postponed over the last three weeks and had not played in 12 days. They have allowed 22 goals in their last four games.

The Blues were naturally the sharper team, having beaten Edmonton 4-2 on Wednesday behind a goal and two assists from Kyrou in his return from a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury.