In Denver, the St Louis Blues turned the script upside and inside out on Wednesday night.
Trailing the Colorado Avalanche 0-3, the Blues rallied to tie the Game 5, 3-3, in the third period.
The Avs’ Nathan MacKinnon then went coast to coast with less than three minutes to go in regulation to make the score 4-3, and seemingly end the series.
The Blues’ Robert Thomas scored with 56 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
IN the extra session, Tyler Bozak completed the second rally of the evening to give the Blues a 5-4 win and send the series back to St Louis for a Game 6 on Friday night.
“Just got a little bounce up top and saw lane to the net, and in overtime there’s definitely no such thing as a bad shot. So just tried to get it through on the traffic and it went in,” Bozak said. “Obviously, feels great. Just a resilient group of guys. Got down and didn’t want the season to be over and fought hard. Got some big goals late, and I was lucky enough to be on the end of the one in overtime. But it was awesome. We’re excited for our next game.”
MacKinnon’s end to end rush was his third strike of the night for a hat trick.
“Unbelievable individual effort to get around Leddy in there and then still be able to grab it to his forehand and put it up top,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s as pretty a goal as I’ve seen in a long time. It’s big. You got to have different guys stepping up different nights. People will be like, ‘Well, our top guys aren’t going enough,’ but we’re winning hockey games and different guys are stepping up. It was [Nazem Kadri] there (in Game 4). It was Nate tonight.”
Ville Husso made 30 saves in the Blues win.
“The first two periods, I thought we played really good,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We got tight in third, and obviously they ramped up their desperation level, which is to [be] expected. They’re playing for their season, and [we] just didn’t get it done.”
Landeskog added a single marker for the Avs.
Thomas scored twice for St Louis.
“[Faulk] does everything for us out there,” Thomas said. “Great defensively, great offensively, plays the hard minutes, and it was awesome to see him get rewarded.”
Vladimir Tarasenko got the first rally going when his strike cut the Avs advantage to 3-1.
“We’re over with this game. That’s over. Move on. Get ready for Game 6,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “MacKinnon had a heck of a game tonight. We all know that. Right from the get-go he was hard to handle. He’ll be hard to handle again. We got to do a better job on him.”
MacKinnon scored twice in the first period to give the Avs a 2-0 lead.
“Obviously, MacKinnon’s one of the best players in the league and makes plays in crucial moments and did it there, but we have great leadership on our team,” Bozak said. “We have a lot of guys who have won before, and we knew there was still lots of time. The guys got it done and got us to overtime, and then it’s anybody’s game when you get there.”
Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves in the Avs loss.
“It doesn’t matter,” MacKinnon said. “We got to move on like Gabe said and come back and win Game 6 on the road. It’s a fun opportunity for us. Hopefully everything happens for a reason, and we’ve got to go get this done. But it should make our team a little harder, a little more grittier in these situations. Can’t win every series in four and five. They have a great team, and we’re excited to go have a huge challenge in St. Louis and try to close out a series.”
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