ST. Louis (AP) — Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots and the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 5-1 on Friday to take a 2-1 lead in the playoffs. the Western Conference. Serie. Joel Erickson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Greenway, Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored as Wild improved to 8-8 all-time in Game 3s. READ MORE: North Minneapolis fire displaces 2 adults , 2 PuppiesFleury, playing in his 16th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff victory. Louis lost Torey Krug to a lower-body injury early in the first period. Krug is the third Blues defenseman to be injured in the series. Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday afternoon in St. Louis before heading back to St. Paul, Minnesota, for Game 5. The Wild wasted no time calming down. the crowd taking advantage of the Blues’ aggressiveness for two early goals.St. Louis defenseman Colton Parayko was caught jumping in the offensive zone creating a 2-on-1 break that resulted in Greenway’s goal at 39 seconds. READ MORE: Traveling in the Twin Cities this weekend? Be prepared for the beginning of the road construction season. Less than two minutes later, Ryan Hartman made Kaprizov jump in a breakaway. Husso made the opening save, deflecting the rebound into the corner, but Kaprizov deflected Husso’s skate rebound from behind the net to give Wild a 2-0 lead. second period and Erickson Ek scored his third goal of the series 22 seconds into the third period. Marcus Foligno collected his second assist of the game on Erickson Ek’s count. The Blues picked up some momentum after O’Reilly’s goal at 2:17 of the third, but Fleury made several tough saves to prevent the rally from gaining more traction. Brodin’s goal with 7:29 remaining caused a significant portion of the packed crowd to head for the exits. SOLD OUT DEFENSE Blues D Nick Leddy and D Robert Bortuzzo and both were eliminated after sustaining upper body injuries in Game 1 and Game 2, respectively. On Thursday, the Blues called up D Steven Santini from Springfield, the team’s AHL affiliate. Santini was a scratch after Marco Scandella, who had missed the last three games with a lower body injury, was given the green light to play. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)