ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild wouldn’t need much time to identify a theme for their first half of the regular season — unfazed ought to do it.

In a fitting finish to their 41st game, the Wild reached the midpoint of the schedule in taxing fashion by fending off the St. Louis Blues 6-4 for their fourth straight victory on Tuesday night.

“Even if we’re up or even or down, I think we just keep playing,” defenseman Jonas Brodin said. “To do that, I think that’s really good. We’ve just got to keep doing it the rest of the season.”

Minnesota (26-11-4) kept pace with Central Division leader Winnipeg, staying two points behind the Jets with one game in hand. The Wild have the fourth-best record in the NHL, after missing the playoffs last season with largely the same roster. One key difference in 2023-24 was a lack of resiliency when injuries and slumps came their way.

“The vibes are high. Everyone’s feeling good,” defenseman Jake Middleton said.

With Brodin leading the way with a career-high 33:02 of ice time, the second-most by any player in the NHL this season, the Wild managed to outlast a late surge by the Blues with contributions from everywhere in the lineup.

Defenseman Brock Faber, the runner-up for the Calder Trophy last year for the league’s top rookie, departed in the first period with an upper-body injury. That meant more minutes for Zach Bogosian on the first blue-line pair with Brodin, with captain Jared Spurgeon sidelined by a lower-body injury.

Flanked by the second forward line of Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman down the stretch with a one-goal lead, Brodin and Bogosian were a two-man wrecking crew in front of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury during a supersized shift to end the game. Johansson’s empty-netter with 36 seconds left gave the Wild a 6-4 lead and a much-needed deep breath.

“That six-man unit to end the game was special to watch,” said Middleton, who returned from a 10-game absence due to an upper-body injury with a goal and an assist.

The defensemen combined for three goals and two assists. Brodin, who led the team with four blocked shots, was justifiably proud of the effort.

“It’s fun to be playing those situations, too, like when it’s on the line. I love to play those minutes. That’s what you dream of when you’re a kid, play those tight games and those shifts. I love it,” Brodin said. “You forget you’re tired when you’re on the ice.”

So what’s the recovery plan?

“I don’t know. Maybe order a pizza or something,” Brodin said.

Wild coach John Hynes had no update on Faber’s condition after the game, but Brodin and his blue-line boys will surely be ready for more role upgrades after the first half they’ve experienced. Brodin missed 10 games earlier this season himself.

Up front, star left wing and leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov is still out with a lower-body injury that has cost him six games and counting. Earlier this season, Eriksson Ek and another top-six forward, Mats Zuccarrello, missed 29 games between them.

“You can go one of two ways when you hit adversity, and we’re choosing to rise to the occasion,” Bogosian said. “That’s what we need to do.”

(FOX 9) – Anyone applying for a job in Minnesota this year should have a pretty good idea of how much the job pays.

Pay transparency arrives

Minnesota moves: Employers have to list a salary range on job postings because of a new pay transparency law.

At least four other states beat Minnesota to the punch, and data from those states show some clear trends.

Transparency is way up, and not just in states where laws require it.

Economists at the Minneapolis Fed are trying to figure out exactly why and whether the laws are benefiting you.

Scroll the employment website Indeed and you’ll see the next assistant manager at the Cottage Grove Domino’s will earn up to $19.50 an hour and the next Walmart manager trainee in Red Wing will make between $65,000 and $80,000 a year.

Pay transparency arrived in Minnesota this year, but what’s not transparent yet is what impact the law will have.

“These laws are pretty new in the United States,” said Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis economist Ayushi Narayan.

Spreading clarity

Transparency rising: Economists at the Minneapolis Fed found a huge increase in transparency in four states where it’s been mandated by law for up to four years now.

But it’s also significantly up in states without mandates and they’re not sure why.

Narayan says the data she’s collected show it’s not necessarily driven by occupational patterns, the shrinking gender pay gap, or transparency laws in other states.

And neither high nor low unemployment rates seem to impact transparency.

“There’s been a pretty steady rise despite big fluctuations in the unemployment rate between 2019 and 2024,” Narayan said.

Increasing salaries

Early hope: She’s curious about research in other states showing slightly improved salaries follow transparency laws.

But the bottom line is, today, we know salaries for more jobs, but it’ll be a while before we know what else is changing.

“It would be really cool to see ‘are the wages increasing? Which employers are complying and which ones aren’t, and what does that mean for who we think is benefiting from the increases in pay transparency?’,” said Narayan.

What else changes?

Enforcement energy: One wildcard here is enforcement.

Even in states with transparency laws, only about 72% of jobs include salary ranges.

Minnesota may have the benefit of seeing how other states handle non-compliance before taking any action here.

The Minnesota coaching staff was on the road on Monday dropping in on top in-state prospects. Among those that the Gophers spent time with is elite in-state prospect Roman Voss.

The four-star prospect is ranked as the top prospect within Minnesota and a top-15 athlete nationally. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Voss does a little bit of everything for Jackson County Central, playing quarterback, tight end, linebacker, and safety.

At the next level, many programs are looking at Voss as a likely tight end or linebacker where his 4.6 speed would be best utizilzed. The Gophers are among those teams and currently view him as a tight end.

Voss is among the Gophers’ top targets in the 2026 recruiting cycle and has already amassed a strong offer sheet with offers from Cal, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Wisconsin, and of course the Gophers.