Scottie Upshall scored a short-handed goal, Alexander Steen, Ryan Reaves and Ivan Barbashev added goals and Alex Pietrangelo and Tarasenko had two assists apiece. The Blues clinched the No. 3 seed in the Central Division after earning at least a point for the 16th time in 18 games, and will play second-seeded Minnesota in the first round.

Jeff Skinner scored twice, giving him an NHL-leading 17 goals since March 1, and Joakim Nordstrom and Klas Dahlbeck also had goals for Carolina while Noah Hanifin and Brett Pesce each assisted on both goals by Skinner.

“The dangerous guys were dangerous,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said, referring to Skinner and Tarasenko.

Hutton made 34 saves for the Blues, while Cam Ward stopped 35 shots for Carolina, which has lost five in a row — a slide that coincided with its mathematical elimination from the playoff race for the eighth straight year, the longest active drought in the league.

Hutton made three straight stops in the tiebreaker after Lee Stempniak scored in Round 1. Tarasenko ended it by beating Ward with a hard snap shot.

Playing its home finale, Carolina — which had been shut out in its previous two games on home ice — found a way to score with surprising frequency against the Blues, who entered having allowed just 54 goals since Feb. 1 — the fewest in the NHL, excluding the team goal awarded for shootout wins. They had given up just 34 goals in their previous 23 road games.

Upshall put the Blues up 4-3 with his goal 2:03 into the third, which came when he chased down a loose puck near the boards and skated toward Ward, deking him before flipping a forehand into the net.

Skinner’s second goal tied it at 4, tucking the puck inside the post with 10:46 remaining, His earlier goal came on a wrist shot with 28.1 seconds remaining in the first period.