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Vladimir Tarasenko hat-trick evens Blues series with Wild

The St. Louis Blues have Vladimir Tarasenko. The Minnesota Wild don’t. And it was this advantage that proved the difference for the Blues on their Saturday Game 2 first round 4-1 win over the Wild, on the scoreboard and on nightly highlight shows. Because when Tarasenko scores, it always looks amazing.

Tarasenko notched a hat trick against the Wild to even the series 1-1 as it heads back to Minnesota for Game 3.

Where was that hole? How did he find it? Who cares ... it's Tarasenko, who always makes something out of seemingly nothing.

"This is a win. This is 100 percent [a] win," Tarasenko said via NHL.com. "There's no time to celebrate. We have a tough couple games coming [up]. Just bring the good part and make the next step right now. We just win. It doesn't matter how many goals you have."

This was an important victory for the Blues after a Game 1 mis-step against the Wild. Most importantly, rookie goaltender Jake Allen bounced back with 24 saves on 25 Wild shots on goal in his third career NHL playoff start. Coach Ken Hitchcock resisted temptation to go back to veteran Brian Elliott.

"We took a big step," he said to NHL.com. "We know we have to play better. Now we've got to go steal a game. We've been a good road team all year, actually we've been a great road team."

As for the Wild, Devan Dubnyk stopped 23 of 26 Blues shots on goal in the loss. 

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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