*Photo from Colorado Hockey Now*
Colorado leads series 3-1
Nazem Kadri learned from his past mistakes. He responded the right way. Erik Johnson scored, Kadri potted a hat trick, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the St. Louis Blues with a 6-3 victory on Monday night in St. Louis.
After playing a part in knocking Jordan Binnington out for the second round and receiving racist comments and threats, Kadri didn't take out his frustrations on an opposing player and get suspended, as he's done in recent years. Instead, he had a 3 goal and one assist game to lead the Avalanche to the win, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Kadri said that "I wanted to come out tonight and really put a mark on this game. I tried to do that as best as possible. Sometimes you've got to be patient and you've got to wait. I was able to strike early in the second period and was able to get the mojo going, in terms of individually and as a team, so it felt amazing. Especially to do it on the road, it was pure."
The only goal of the first period came from David Perron, who put the Blues ahead 1-0 with his 8th goal of the playoffs. Johnson, Devon Toews, and Kadri twice, scored for the Avalanche in the second period, followed by goals from Perron and Pavel Buchnevich, made it a 4-3 game after two periods, in favor of Colorado.
At the 9:38 mark of the 3rd period, Kadri completed the hat trick, with his 3rd goal of the night and 5th goal of the playoffs making it 5-3 Avalanche, assisted by Valeri Nichushkin. Mikko Rantanen scored an empty net goal with just two seconds left to play, making it a 6-3 win, with the lone assist coming from Kadri.
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said of the win in game 4 that he "Loved our game 5-on-5, loved it. Right from the drop of the puck, we had a great first period, great second period. We get into penalty trouble, they score a couple of goals on the power play, things get tight, things get hairy."
Getting the start in goal for the Avalanche was Darcy Kuemper, who got his second straight win as the Avalanche won both road games. Kuemper stopped 17 of the 20 shots he was tasked with saving, which was good for a .850 save percentage in the win.
With Binnington out for the foreseeable future, it was Ville Husso back in action as the starter for the Blues. Husso turned aside 31 out of the 36 shots on goal that he faced, recording a .861 save percentage as the Blues sputtered to their 3rd loss of the series.
Perron didn't like how the whole game felt, saying after the game that "I'm not sure we ever had control of the game, even though we scored first. We didn't make them defend hard enough. We had some pushes, but not nearly consistent enough to win a hockey game."
Up next, game 5 of the series is on Wednesday night, back in Colorado. There, the Avalanche will look to secure a spot in the Western Conference Finals with a win, while the Blues will try to stay alive and force a game 6.
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