David Perron had a goal and an assist and Ben Bishop made 23 saves to help the St. Louis Blues beat Minnesota 5-1 on Wednesday night in a preseason game that ended the Wild's franchise-long home sellout streak at 409 games. The crowd was announced at 16,219.
''I'd start with the economy. That's probably the biggest factor,'' Wild CEO Matt Majka said. ''After that we just have to get better as an organization, on the ice and off the ice.''
Alex Steen, Jay McClement, Philip McRae and Graham Mike also scored for the Blues (1-1).
Martin Havlat scored 42 seconds into the game for the Wild in their exhibition opener.
''It took us a little bit to get our legs under us,'' Bishop said. ''After their first goal, we responded really well. The guys played a great game. We really took it to them for the last 50 minutes.''
The teams will meet again Friday night in St. Louis.
