In St Louis Friday night, Vladimir Tarasenko struck twice including the game-winner with less than four minutes left in regulation to get the Blues even with the Nashville Predators in a 3-2 win
Jori Lehtera also scored for the Blues who needed a win to prevent an 0-2 hole heading to Nashville.
“Another one of my goals [is] a big goal for us,” Tarasenko said. “After [the] first game, we can’t lose this one, so it’s [a] tied series now and [we] play Nashville on [Sunday] and have time to reset and do our best.”
Jake Allen was busy in the third period when he made 14 of his 22 saves to get the win.
“We knew it was going to be a long series,” Allen said. “I don’t think either team thought it was going to be a sweep, for one side or the other. That’s going to be rare in these ages. We’re still in for a long series, just have to get rest and go into a tough building.”
Ryan Ellis and James Neal scored for the Preds who held a 2-1 lead and looked to be in command early in the third period before the Blues rallied.
“There [were] things that we did well that I liked tonight, but the bottom line is we’ve got to win hockey games,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “We didn’t win tonight.”
The series now switches to Nashville for Games 3 and 4.
“Kudos to them. They played a good game too. It’s disappointing to be up halfway through the third there, but we’ve got to stay out of the box, maybe get a call here and there, and just capitalize on our chances. We came at them down the stretch but a good goalie made some good saves,” Ellis said after the Game 2 loss.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Blues highlights | RELATED: Complete St. Louis vs. Nashville series coverage]
Pekka Rinne made 17 stops in taking his first loss of the post season.
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