In St Louis, Ryan O’Reilly completed his hat trick late in the game to ice a 5-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche in a Saturday matinee.
Jordan Binnington made 27 saves to get the win.
“We know that it’s got to be on the guys, it’s got to be on [our] core,” O’Reilly said. “We absolutely know if we want to make the playoffs, it’s got to be on us — and then everyone else follows. So it’s good we stepped up, found a way. A lot of work left, a lot of things to clean up.”
The Avs took a 2-0 lead in the first period before the Blues stormed back for a 3-2 lead.
“It was a hard-fought hockey game,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We took two or three dumb penalties tonight and they end up costing us. They scored the game-winning goal on the five-on-three. We’re in a tie game in the third period on the road. It’s a good spot to be. We felt good about being there the way the second period went and then the penalties killed us.”
Cale Makar scored off the power play and Gabriel Landeskog‘ added a second goal in the early outburst.
“Obviously we jumped off to an early lead and I thought everybody was still rolling,” Makar said.
The Blues rally came off O’Reilly’s first two goals of the afternoon and a single strike from Ivan Barbashev.
“Our guys did a great job,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said. “Get down quickly 2-0, but I thought that ‘Binner’ made a huge save at, I don’t remember the exact time, and then we just responded. O’Reilly gets a goal and we’re right back in it. Guys, they stayed positive on the bench. That’s the key. I thought our team really inspired each other tonight to go get a win.”
Nathan MacKinnon also scored for the Avs; his goal tied the game at 3-3 just ahead of the midway point of the middle frame.
The Blues regained the lead late in the second period off a goal fro,m Mike Hoffman.
“I know it’s one of my advantages and just happy enough that we’re able to execute on the power play and that was a big goal for our team and to put us up by one in this very important game,” Hoffman said.
Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves in the loss.
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