Sometimes it’s not easy to come home again. Especially when the scrappy St. Louis Blues are visiting.

Playing at Grand Casino Arena for the first time in a month, the Minnesota Wild saw a second period lead disappear quickly, as the Blues rallied for a 3-1 win on Sunday.

Pavel Buchnevich scored the game-winner late in the third period for the Blues, snapping a shot just under the crossbar behind Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson as Minnesota lost back-to-back games for the first time since mid-January.

Robert Thomas added an empty-net goal for the Blues in the final minute.

Kirill Kaprizov scored the only goal for the Wild, who got 21 saves from Gustavsson in the loss.

“I thought we had enough looks to be able to get, you know, more than one goal,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Then they had a good look in the third and that was a heck of a shot by their guy. Unfortunately it was a game where we didn’t find a way to penetrate through, but I thought our effort was there.”

While the Blues applied steady pressure in the scoreless first period, Minnesota had the best scoring chance when a long lead pass sprung Kaprizov on a breakaway from the blue line. But St. Louis goalie Joel Hofer thwarted the Russian star’s attempt at a flip of the puck over the leg pad.

Minnesota finally broke through late in the second on a power play. After St. Louis made a shorthanded rush to the net, Minnesota came back with numbers, and put the game’s first goal on the board when Matt Boldy fed Kaprizov for a chip-in at the side of the net.

The goal was Kaprizov’s 219th of his career, which tied him with Marian Gaborik for most in franchise history.

“We see him every day, so we just know how good he is,” said Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek. “I think it’s just a matter of time and he’s going to break it. The more he scores, the better chance we have to win the game.”

The lead was brief, as Blues defenseman Logan Mailloux zipped a shot through a screen and past Gustavsson with less than two minutes to play in the middle frame.

“It just goes very close to (Quinn Hughes’) leg there,” Gustavsson said. “You lose it for half a second and that’s all it takes.”

The Blues got 22 saves from Joel Hofer, to even their season series with Minnesota at 1-1. With Gustavsson on the bench for an extra attacker, Hofer’s shot at the empty net with 1:07 to play was deflected and went just wide.

“I think we go to the net a lot today, and we have so many chances,” Kaprizov said. “(Their) goalie played pretty good.”

The Wild suffered a loss before the game began, with veteran winger Marcus Foligno missing due to a lower body injury he incurred on Friday in Utah. There was no update on the severity of the injury after the game, with Hynes saying Foligno is still being assessed. Minnesota had called up Tyler Pitlick from Iowa to take Foligno’s place on the fourth line. It was the 32nd game for Pitlick, the former Centennial High School standout who is in his first season with the Wild.

Prior to the opening faceoff, the Wild honored eight of their 10 players, and several members of their support staff, who participated in the 2026 Winter Olympics, including their three American gold medal winners.

Briefly

The Wild made a minor league trade on Sunday evening, sending Iowa forward Boris Katchouk to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenseman Roman Schmidt. Originally from Michigan, Schmidt, 23, is listed at 6-foot-5 and 218 pounds. He has spent all of this season with the Flyers’ AHL team and will report to Iowa for the Wild.

Katchouk was acquired by the Wild on Dec. 28 and had played eight games for Iowa.