SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota's top line of left winger Zach Parise, center Mikael Granlund and right winger Jason Pominville combined to score two goals late in the second period, leading the Wild to a 3-0 win over the St. Louis Blues and a 2-1 lead in the teams' first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Parise and Pominville each had a goal and an assist, and Granlund had two assists. Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk made 17 saves for his first career playoff shutout. Right winger Nino Niederreiter added an empty-net goal.

The Blues got a 21-save performance from goalie Jake Allen, but were frustrated offensively all night and lost their ninth consecutive playoff road game.

The Wild finally gave the anxious crowd a reason to explode late in the second period when Pominville scored his second goal of the playoffs.

Granlund raced up the left side of the ice with the puck, skating around Blues right winger Vladimir Tarasenko and winding up to shoot, only to have the puck knocked away. Parise grabbed the loose puck and zipped a pass to Pominville, who was uncovered at the side of the crease. With Allen out of position, Pominville needed only to tap the puck into the mostly empty net at 14:08.

Two minutes later, Parise doubled the Minnesota lead. This time it was Pominville feeding a pass to Parise, who was tied up with Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester a dozen feet out from the top of the crease. Parise whacked at the puck twice to get it free of the defender, then zipped a slap shot past Allen before the goalie could react.

The Parise-Pominville-Granlund trio was within inches of giving the Wild a 3-0 early in the third when a crisp passing play left Allen out of the crease and Granlund alone at the side of the net with the puck and nothing but net to shoot at. However, Granlund missed, clanking a shot off the side of the goal.

The three-goal lead for Minnesota finally came with 2:02 remaining and Allen on the bench, when Niederreiter scored his first goal of the playoffs.

The Blues last won a road playoff game on April 19, 2012, beating the Sharks 3-1 in San Jose.

NOTES: Wild RW Justin Fontaine returned to the lineup after missing Game 2 with a stomach virus. Fontaine logged more than 11 minutes of ice time in the series opener and had one assist. ... The hat trick recorded by Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko in Game 2 was the first the Wild allowed in the playoffs, and the first recorded by St. Louis in the postseason since Mike Sillinger scored three goals on April 12, 2004, vs. San Jose. ... While the Blues and Wild never met in the playoffs prior to this season, the Blues and Minnesota North Stars had nine head-to-head playoff series, including 1968, when they were both first-year expansion teams. The Blues prevailed over the North Stars in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals before being swept in the Stanley Cup finals by the Montreal Canadiens.