Vladimir Tarasenko scored early in the third period to break a 2-2 tie, then scored two more goals for a natural hat trick to lead the Blues to a 5-2 victory in Game 5 of their series against the Wild. The victory gives the Blues a three games to two lead in the best of seven series. Ryan O’Reilly opened the scoring in the first period with his fourth goal of the series. The Wild then got two consecutive power play goals from Kirill Kaprizov to take a 2-1 lead. Brandon Saad tipped in Jordan Kyrou’s shot in the second period to tie the game at 2-2. Then Tarasenko took over with his second career hat trick in the playoffs. Jordan Binnington stopped 30 Wild shots to get the win in goal for the Blues.
The Blues can now wrap up the series with a game 6 victory on Thursday at Enterprise Center.