ST. LOUIS -- Right wing Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first career playoff hat trick and goalie Jake Allen stopped 24 of 25 Minnesota shots to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 win Saturday.

St. Louis evened the first-round playoff series at a win each. Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be Monday night in Minnesota.

Tarasenko, who led the Blues with 37 goals during the season, had been held without a shot on goal in the Blues' Game 1 loss. But he made certain that didn't happen again Saturday, scoring his fifth and sixth career playoff goals in the first period before completing the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 17 seconds to play.

Tarasenko, playing his ninth career playoff game, became the first Blues player to record a hat trick in the playoffs since Mike Sillinger in 2004. It was the 13th playoff hat trick in franchise history.

He opened the scoring by deflecting a shot from the point by left wing Alexander Steen past goalie Devin Dubnyk at 13:18 of the first period to give the Blues their first lead in the series.

An interference penalty against Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba put the Blues on the power play at 17:43 of the first period; and, 18 seconds later, Tarasenko scored his second goal of the game when his shot from the side of the net got past Dubnyk.

The assists on both of Tarasenko's goals went to Steen and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who has an assist on four of the Blues' five goals in the series.

Allen, who had made his first playoff start in Game 1, protected that two-goal lead until Minnesota defenseman Marco Scandella scored 1:46 into the third period. Scandella's broken-stick shot cut the Blues' lead to 2-1.

The Wild almost tied the game with 8:37 to play when defenseman Charlie Coyle's shot hit the crossbar. After the puck bounced off Allen's back, center David Backes covered the puck before it could cross the goal line.

Left wing Patrik Berglund restored the two-goal lead on an unassisted goal after a Minnesota turnover with 1:58 left in the third period.

While it technically was not a must-win game for the Blues, they had won only one of 19 playoff series after going down 2-0. That win came in the first round in 1972, when they lost the first two games at Minnesota before rallying to defeat the North Stars in seven games.

NOTES: After saying they would not make any lineup changes from Game 1, the Wild scratched RW Justin Fontaine and LW Sean Bergenheim and inserted LW Matt Cooke and C Jordan Schroeder into the lineup. ... The Blues did not make any changes. ... The only players in this series who have been on teams that won the Stanley Cup are Cooke (Pittsburgh, 2009) and Wild C Ryan Carter (Anaheim, 2007), who did not play in either of the first two games. ... NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in St. Louis for Game 1 and said he would support bringing the Winter Classic or a Stadium Series outdoor game to the city. "I think at some point we should be here with an outdoor game," Bettman said.