The St. Louis Blues got their work done on the road in Game 5 and now have a chance to close out the series in front of their home crowd Thursday night.
A back-and-forth game, it took a spectacular third period from the whole team - especially Vladimir Tarasenko - to wrestle control away from Minnesota and give the Blues a 3-2 series lead over the Wild.
Tarasenko scored twice in a 1:28 span - the second-quickest time between Playoff goals in franchise history - and followed it up with an empty-netter to record his second career postseason hat trick.
"(Tarasenko's) an elite player - great shots," said Brandon Saad, who added an equalizer goal in the second period. "He's a special player, you can't say enough good things about him. Obviously he helped our team win tonight, we know how big of a part of our team he is... Great goals tonight, and we're looking to move onto the next game."
Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo were welcome returns to the blue line, and rookie Scott Perunovich recorded his second assist in as many games during this series. With the Blues winning two games in a row playing a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen, Head Coach Craig Berube may have found something with this emphasis on defensive play.
Though the Blues and Wild are both undoubtedly focused on the here and now, Colorado's 4-0 sweep over Nashville on Monday night guarantees the Avalanche as the second-round opponent for the winner of this series.
NOTEWORTHY STATS
- Jordan Binnington recorded his 18th career postseason victory in Game 6, taking sole possession of the all-time franchise record among goalies.
- The Blues hold an all-time series record of 12-2 (.857) when leading a series 3-2.
- In the NHL, when a best-of-7 series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 holds an all-time series record of 219-58 (.791).
THEY SAID IT
"It's not a time to think about any (individual) achievements for now. Biggest thing is we won the game - just move on to the next one. At this point, from our experience in 2019, we learned that only wins matter." - Vladimir Tarasenko after his hat trick in Game 5
"We have an opportunity to play another hockey game, and it has to be our best game. We have to get rid of the uncharacteristic mistakes that we had tonight, get the job done there, and come back here." - Wild Head Coach Dean Evason after Game 5
BLUE NOTES
Tarasenko's hat trick made him the third player in franchise history to score three goals in a Playoff period, and the fourth in franchise history to record a natural hat trick in the postseason. His 39 career postseason goals share 13th in the NHL among active players... The Blues have recorded at least one power-play goal in all five games against Minnesota in the first round. Their six power-play goals on 20 attempts (30 percent) currently makes for a higher conversion rate than their regular-season mark of 27.0 percent, a franchise record.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Karill Kaprizov continue their scoring duel when the St. Louis Blues host the Minnesota Wild in Game 6 of their first-round Western Conference series.
Kaprizov scored twice in Game 5 Tuesday to give the Wild a 2-1 lead, but Tarasenko responded with a third-period hat trick to give the Blues a 5-2 victory.
That sent the Blues home with a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series.
"Happy to win," said Tarasenko, who has four goals and an assist in this series. "Obviously happy to score, I'm not going to lie. But more happy to win."
The Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019, but they have not won a playoff series since then. Now they are one victory away from a second-round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche, who swept the Nashville Predators in their series.
"It's not the time to think about any achievements," Tarasenko said. "The biggest thing is we won the game and let's move onto the next one. At this point with the experience in 2019, we learned that only wins matter and it's good we have a win."
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington has won both starts since replacing Ville Husso in the nets after Game 3. His ability to handle the puck behind the net helped the depleted Blues defense corps, which regained Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo in Game 5 but is still missing regulars Torey Krug and Marco Scandella due to lower-body injuries.
"(Binnington) did a hell of a job," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought he made some big saves for us. I've talked about the puck play. He was excellent with that puck tonight. He killed a lot of their forecheck."
The Blues have put heavy emphasis on checking Kaprizov in this series, to no avail. His two goals gave him seven in the playoffs, which led all NHL players through Tuesday's games.
"Kaprizov just needs a little room," Berube said. "His shot is really good. And he's so strong. He's hard to handle. Heck of a player."
Through a translator, Kaprizov shrugged off his mounting goal total.
"The goal isn't for a player to play well. The goal is for the team to play well, and we didn't win," Kaprizov said. "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."
Kaprizov sets the tempo for the Wild -- and coach Dean Evason would like to see more of his teammates playing at that tempo.
"He wills the team," Evason said. "He just didn't have enough guys willing alongside him tonight. If we had 20 of him, we'd be competing our butts off a little better."
With his team facing elimination, Evason expects to see a better team-wide effort in Game 6.
"We've seen our group respond and we're expecting our group to respond," Evason said. "It's a must-win. It's desperation. We're going to play our best game, all the cliches that you want to throw out there. It's one hockey game at a time, and we'll compete our butts off and see where we sit at the end of the night."
