from Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

The statistics tell you that when a best-of-7 series is tied two games apiece, the winner of Game 5 goes on to win the series more than 79 percent of the time.

With that in mind, advantage St. Louis. Getting a third period hat trick from Vladimir Tarasenko – including two huge goals early in the period - the Blues erased a 2-1 Minnesota lead for a 5-2 victory before a loud and sold out crowd at Xcel Energy Center.

As a result, the Blues are now just one victory away from erasing the Wild in this series, with Game 6 on Thursday at Enterprise Center.

Just when you thought the Blues had no answer for Kirill “The Thrill” Kaprizov, who scored both Minnesota goals on first period power plays, Tarasenko stepped up and said: I got this. The hat trick was his second in postseason play and seventh overall as an NHL player.

“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.”

contiued

Game highlights are below.