Shattenkirk's SO goal lifts Blues over Wild

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Kevin Shattenkirk and the St. Louis Blues finally figured out how to win in a shootout.

Pick up the pace a little.

Shattenkirk scored the only goal in the shootout, and Jaroslav Halak made three saves in the tiebreaker as the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Saturday night.

" When I go a little too slow, I tend to think about it too much and, that's not good,'' Shattenkirk said. " I went with a little speed, I saw it, and I went for it."

St. Louis improved to an NHL-best 18-3-3 at home with its first shootout win of the season.

The Blues, who have won five of six, are 10-0-2 in their last 12 home games. They had been 0-5 in shootouts and had scored on just 1-of-17 attempts. Shattenkirk changed all that by scoring for the first time in three tries.

Halak did the rest, stopping Matt Cullen, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi to break his 0-9 shootout record. Halak improved to 8-0-3 in his last 11 games and hasn't lost in regulation since Nov. 22.

He took a laid-back approach to his pressure-packed sixth shootout of the season.

" I was 0-and-5 and I figured if we lost, I'd be 0-and-6, so it really doesn't matter,'' Halak said. " At least we'd be getting one point."

Jamie Langenbrunner and T.J. Oshie failed to score for St. Louis, which improved to 20-5-6 under coach Ken Hitchcock.

The Blues became the last Western Conference team to gain a shootout victory.

" I think this is a big weight off of everybody's shoulders,'' Hitchcock said. " That's as much joy as I've seen on the bench in a long time."

David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo scored for St. Louis in a span of 2:35 in the second period to erase the Blues' 1-0 deficit.

David McIntyre and Jared Spurgeon had goals for the Wild, 0-7-2 in their last nine road outings.

The Blues moved into a tie with Chicago for first place in the Central Division with 58 points - one fewer than Vancouver in the Western Conference race.

Spurgeon tied the game for the Wild 2-2 with his third goal of the season.

Pietrangelo broke a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal midway through the second period. He has two goals and seven assists in a career-high, six-game point streak.

Perron tied it at 1 with his third goal midway though the second period. He put in a rebound of a shot by Chris Stewart. Perron returned to the lineup on Dec. 3 after missing 97 games because of a concussion.

Minnesota goalie Josh Harding made a season-high 47 saves. Harding entered the game with a 6-2 career mark against St. Louis and turned in one of his finest efforts of the season, but fell to 8-5-3. He was pulled from Thursday's 5-2 loss at Chicago after giving up four goals on 21 shots.

" I wanted to come out and give the team a boost,'' Harding said. " We wanted to get back to the basics and come up with a good effort. I think we did that."

McIntyre gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with his first NHL goal at 7:13 of the first period. McIntyre, recalled from Houston of the AHL on Monday, deflected in a shot from Cullen.

The game featured six fighting majors and a combined 52 hits. Minnesota's Justin Falk and St. Louis' David Backes got into a fight just 58 seconds in.

" Right from the drop of the puck, we weren't going to be pushovers,'' Falk said. " We went after them hard."

Wild coach Mike Yeo was pleased with his team's effort.

" We came into the building of a team that's got the best (home) record in the NHL,'' Yeo said. " And we had a chance to get two points. That, for me, is a really impressive effort from our guys."

Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu sustained an undisclosed upper body injury on a hit by Vladimir Sobotka in the first period and didn't return. Koivu appeared to injure a shoulder.

" We'll wait until he gets evaluated and then see what happens next," Yeo said.

NOTES: St. Louis LW Alex Steen missed his eighth game with concussion-like symptoms. ... The Wild have been involved in 24 one-goal games. ... Minnesota G Niklas Backstrom didn't play due to the flu. ... The Blues are 4-0-2 this month after winning just two games last January. ... St. Louis failed to score in the first period for the first time in 11 home games.