IN St Louis, the air that left the arena on Saturday when Jordan Binnington went down with a lower body injury, did not return on Monday night.
The Colorado Avalanche scored four times in the second period to erase a 1-0 lead the Blues held, enroute to a 6-3 win in Game 4.
Nazem Kadri had a hat trick for the Avs.
The Avs hold a commanding 3-1 series lead heading home for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Kadri and Devon Toews scored 19 seconds apart in the middle frame to thoroughly deflate the Blues.
“I wanted to come out tonight and really put a mark on this game,” Kadri said. ” … I tried to do that as best as possible. Sometimes you’ve got to be patient and you’ve got to wait. I was able to strike early in the second period and was able to get the mojo going, in terms of individually and as a team, so it felt amazing. Especially to do it on the road, it was pure.”
Kadri scored twice in the second period, and completed his hat trick midway through the third period.
“Loved our game 5-on-5, loved it,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Right from the drop of the puck, we had a great first period, great second period. We get into penalty trouble, they score a couple of goals on the power play, things get tight, things get hairy.”
Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves in the Colorado win.
“We got out-skated for most of the game 5-on-5. It’s pretty simple,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “I don’t know why. We got out-skated. They out-skated us. Got to every loose puck. Lost a lot of puck battles.”
David Perron hit for a double for St Louis, and Pavel Buchnevich scored his first of the post season in the loss.
Erik Johnson also scored in the second period, his strike tied the game, 1-1, after Peron scored in the first period.
“I’m not sure we ever had control of the game, even though we scored first,” Perron said. “We didn’t make them defend hard enough. We had some pushes, but not nearly consistent enough to win a hockey game.”
Peron and Buchnevich scored power play goals, 33 seconds apart, late in the second period to claw back to within 4-3, but Kadri’s goal in the third made it 5-3.
“Yeah, can’t give that goal up,” Berube said. “It shouldn’t have happened and that deflated us a bit. Made a push with the goalie out. While we had a power play, had a couple good looks on that power play to maybe make it a one-goal game, but again, overall, 5-on-5, they were way better than us tonight.”
Mikko Rantanen hit an empty net goal for the 6-3 final.
Ville Husso made 31 saves for the Blues in the loss.
“We came out right away in the third period and started playing the same way,” Bednar said. “Great team game from our guys.”
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