To nobody’s surprise, game one between the Blues and Avalanche needed extra time to be settled. This possibly setting the tone for the rest of the series.
Former Avalanche, Ryan O’Reilly, opened the scoring in the first period with a backhand shot that beat Darcy Kuemper glove side about 6:30 into the first period. This was O’Reilly’s sixth goal of the playoffs.
O’Rilley’s goal would be the only goal Kuemper allowed until the third period and St. Louis would take the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Colorado would come back, scoring two goals in the second period. The first was from Valeri Nichushkin, his third of the playoffs, Three minutes into the second period to tie the game.
“[Nichushkin’s] been so good for us and he just keeps finding ways to be super effective for us, scoring big goals,” the Avs’ Gabriel Landeskog said. “Even when he’s not scoring, he’s contributing in other ways.”
The second was from Samuel Girard, his first of the playoffs, to take the lead at 2-1. Colorado continued to unleash shots on Blues goaltender, Jordan Binnington.
“He (Girard) had a great night,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “He was involved in skating and in our offense right out of the gate. If I cut the scoring chances up, he’s going to be a part of a lot of them. I thought he was really good tonight.”
At 14:53 of the third period, Devon Toews went to the box for holding and putting St. Louis on their first and only power play of the game.
Jordan Kyrou was able to capitalize on a bad line change from Colorado and tie the game at 2.
“I knew they were changing, and [Justin] Faulk made a nice, quick [pass] up,” Kyrou said. “I just took it in and saw a lane and shot it.”
It was Kyrou’s fourth goal of the playoffs.
“I felt going into the game that we’re right there, the way we’ve been playing,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We need more guys to perform. That’s really what it boils down to. And again, we’ve got to make more plays with the puck.”
On to overtime. Colorado controlled the puck well, not allowing St. Louis a shot on net and delivering 13 shots in the overtime period. The 13th shot came from Josh Mason who was Colorado’s overtime hero for Game 1.
“In my dreams, [I scored] like a one-hander or something,” Manson said, laughing. “It’s not about how I feel, it’s about how the whole team feels. Seeing everybody come at me was the best part.”
Mason was the first star of the game.
“I liked our game the whole night. I thought we were resilient there,” Bednar said. “Obviously we made a mistake on the penalty kill. We changed four guys, gave them one that was too easy. It is what it is.
“We’ve talked to our team all year long about being resilient and being mentally tough, and we came out and got right back to our game. Didn’t capitalize on the power play, but just kept doing what we were doing throughout the course of the 60 minutes, and eventually we felt like we’d have a chance and break them down and get the winner. Our guys believed it. They worked hard for it, and I felt like they earned it tonight.”
Colorado was 0-for-3 on the power play in game 1 and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.
Every other category, Colorado outplayed St. Louis. Out shooting the Blues 54-25, winning 64.2% of the faceoffs and out-hitting the Blues 47-39.
Binnington, made 51 saves on 54 shots he faced.
St. Louis has a chance to even up the series in Game 2, set for 9:30 p.m. ET, on Thursday at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
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