In St Paul, Vladimir Tarasenko hit for a natural hat trick in the third period on Tuesday night to send the St Louis Blues to a 5-2 win over the Wild i Game 5.
The Blues hold a 3-2 lead in the series.
Game 6 is in St Louis on Thursday.
“Happy to win,” Tarasenko said. “Obviously, happy to score, I’m not going to lie, but more happy to win.”
Jordan Binnington made 30 saves in the Blues win.
“Our team is built to go deep into games and deep into playoffs and deep into the series,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “You know, that’s where we’re at. Today was a good example. We’re down 2-1 and we went out and capitalized and got it done.”
Kirill Kaprizov hit for a double in the Minnesota loss.
“The goal isn’t for a player to play well,” Kaprizov said. “The goal is for the team to play well, and we didn’t win. Ultimately, that’s what we play for. We have a chance to make some changes to get the series back home for Game 7, and that’s what we have to do.”
Ryan O’Reilly staked the Blues to a 1-0 lead before Kaprizov hit for his double and a 2-1 lead to the Wild.
“[Kaprizov is] unbelievable, right? He’s unbelievable,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “He’s physical. It’d be nice to have 20 of them.
“This kid just continues competing his [butt] off, and goals aside, he wants to win. He wills the team. He just didn’t have enough guys willing alongside him tonight.”
Brandon Saad tied the game, 2-2, in the 16th minute of the middle frame.
“I think our third period there was kind of our identity,” Saad said. “I think we got better as the game went on. … But yeah, you see our third period, being simple, going north, kind of just getting on the forecheck, making them come 200 feet. Early on, we kind of let them play half ice or two-thirds ice, and they were getting rush chances. I think we tightened it up as we went along, and we’re happy to close that out.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves in the Wild loss.
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