The Blues will be going back home with their series against the Avalanche tied at one game apiece.
Adjustments made by the Blues following a game one loss appear to have worked. St. Louis controlled puck possession and forced turnovers from Colorado that lead to quality scoring chances. The Blues started the game determined not to be outshot as we saw in game one. St. Louis outshot Colorado in the first period 14-8. Neither team scored in the first period, but the Blues’ plan was clear: don’t let Colorado have time with the puck.
“We didn’t have our jump tonight. Our execution was off,” Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon said. “Just weren’t feeling it. Just fighting it out there, and it’s unfortunate, but it’s 1-1. We get to go on the road and hopefully steal one there, hopefully two, and we got to forget about it and move on and get back to the way we can play.”
St. Louis continued to dominate puck posession in the second when Jordan Kyrou scored his second goal of the series and fifth goal of the postseason.
“Big goal by Kyrou,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “He was skating and attacking, and he had a couple other good looks.”
Late in the second period, Devon Toews was called for tripping Scott Perunovich while trying to force a turnover behind the Blues’ net. About a minute into the power play, Valeri Nichushkin had a breakaway chance but was eventually tied up as he ran over St. Louis goaltender, Jordan Binnington. Nichushkin was called for interference and the Blues had a 5-on-3 power play.
David Perron gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead, scoring his first goal of the series and sixth goal of the playoffs during the power play. At the end of the second period, St. Louis had outshot Colorado 24-19, and more importantly lead the game 2-0.
“I just kind of took a step to the middle and the ‘D’ didn’t really come my way,” Perron said. “If he did, probably I’d just slide it over the stick to [Buchnevich]Â hoping that he scores, but [it] went in. It was a big goal for us. That was important.”
After killing the penalty to Nichushkin, Colorado would go on the power play when Perron was called for hooking MackKinnon.
Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog scored 25 seconds into the power play to make it 2-1.
Halfway through the third period, Perron scored on a 2-on-1, beating Darcy Keumper over the glove to make it 3-1, Blues.
“We did a good job, and we forechecked hard tonight,” Berube said. “We put pucks to good areas and were on it. We had numbers on it all night and made them play in their own end and did a good job. When the puck turned over or they get their possession, we reloaded well, and I thought that we did a good job coming back in our own zone, protecting the middle ice, and our ‘D’ did a [heck] of a job of defending the rush, defending in our zone.
“We played good hockey all year. It’s a good group of guys that want to win. They know in Game 1 they didn’t do well enough, and all year they’ve responded when things [get hard]. You go over things and you tell them why and you show them why, and they respond.”
An empty-net goal by Brandon Saad would seal the deal for St. Louis.
“Number 1, we got out-worked and out-skated, so that makes everything more difficult,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s one game. We knew this was going to be a long, hard series. This is a really good team. They answered back after a bad night in Game 1. Now the onus is on us. We have to do the exact same thing.”
Game 3 will be at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 21 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
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