In Edmonton, it wasn’t easy, but the Vancouver Canucks defeated the St Louis Blues on Wednesday night, 4-3, on the strength of three straight goals to over come a 1-3 deficit in the middle frame.
two goals, and the Vancouver Canucks rallied to put the St. Louis Blues on the brink of elimination with a 4-3 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday.
J.T. Miller, Jake Virtanen and Tyler Motte scored after the Blues had taken a 3-1 lead early in the second period.
Jacob Markstrom made 36 saves and held off the Blues in a scoreless third period to get the win.
“My mindset stayed the same, keep the puck out of the net,” Markstrom said. “When you’re down 3-1, it’s not ideal. Having let three goals in is nothing I would like to do, but for us to come back after that in the second period is huge.”
Vancouver leads the series, 3-2.
“It’s huge. You need production up and down the lineup, especially in the playoffs,” Motte said “Every game is going to be a battle, so for us to be able to contribute that way tonight, it was important for us.”
Motte, who had two goals on the night, scored shorthanded in the first period to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead.
“Kind of a lucky break, I guess, with him breaking his stick up top,” Motte said. “I missed a clearing attempt off the face-off early, so it was nice to get an opportunity up the ice. [Pietrangelo] caught up to me pretty quick. I just tried to make a move and get the puck off on net. It happened to go in.”
The Blues rallied from that early deficit with three straight goals to seemingly take command of the game.
Ryan O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford were the Blues’ strikers.
“[We] fell asleep there for whatever, 10-15 minutes of that (second) period,” Schenn said. “[We] quit moving our feet, quit playing hard in our D-zone and made some mistakes and before you know it, it’s 4-3.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Blues Game 5 highlights]
Jake Allen made 26 saves in the loss.
“I think we’ve just got to use our experience from last year,” the Blues’ Jaden Schwartz said. “We’ve been in this position. … Today is frustrating, but we’ve got a resilient group and guys have been here before, so we’ll be ready for that next game. That’s all we’re worried about.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.