*Photo from the Globe and Mail*
Colorado leads series 2-1
It was a game of injuries, loss, and resilience, but the Colorado Avalanche prevailed. Logan O'Connor scored, Artturi Lehkonen added a two goal game, and the Avalanche defeated the St. Louis Blues with a 5-2 victory on Saturday night in St. Louis.
With the win, the Avalanche quickly bounced back after a loss in game two at home, picking up their 6th win in 7 playoff games so far. Aside from Lehkonen's two goal game, Nazem Kadri also had a goal and an assist, while Mikko Rantanen had a two assist game.
One big negative for the Avalanche came early in the game. Blues forward Ivan Barbashev checked Avalanche defenseman Sam Girard into the boards less than two minutes into the game. Girard went down hard, and was transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation. There, he was diagnosed with a broken sternum, and will miss the rest of the playoffs.
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said of the hit that "He just catches him in a bad spot, but I thought it was legal check, to be honest with you. He kind of goes in on his head side, but he got a lot of body there. Girard was turned the wrong way, and he went in awkward, and it was a heavy check. Unfortunate, but to be honest, I think it was a legal check."
It was the Blues who got on the board first, with Colton Parayko putting them ahead 1-0 with his second goal of the playoffs, assisted by Ryan O'Reilly 3:55 into the game. O'Connor scored 10:57 into the game, tying it 1-1 after one period of play.
In the second period, Kadri scored to put the Avalanche ahead 2-1, with his second goal of the playoffs coming 13:38 into the second. At the 17:15 mark of the second, Lehkonen picked up his first goal of the night, making it a 3-1 lead. O'Reilly scored for the Blues with 30 seconds left, making it 3-2 after two periods.
The 3rd period went by mostly scoreless, until the end of the period. With 2:08 left in the game, Gabe Landeskog put the Avalanche ahead 4-2, with Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon assisting on his 5th goal of the playoffs. With just 58 seconds left in the game, Lehkonen scored his second goal of the night, sealing the 5-2 win.
Bednar said of the team's play that "As we kind of got playing a little bit, just every minute got a little bit better and got ourselves into the game. Not the ideal start you want. You could sense a little nervousness, but I give our guys a lot of credit for playing through that. Darcy came up with some big saves for us when we needed them tonight, because we had some breakdowns, especially at the end of the second."
Getting the start and a bounce back performance for the Avalanche was Darcy Kuemper. In the win, Kuemper saved 29 of the 31 shots that the Blues tested him with, posting a .935 save percentage for his second win of the series.
For the Blues, it was Ville Husso who got the bulk of the action, getting the loss in this one. Husso turned aside 19 out of the 23 shots on goal that the Avalanche sent his way, recording a .826 save percentage in the loss.
Despite Husso getting the loss, he was not the starter. Jordan Binnington was in net for the Blues, until disaster struck. With Kadri driving the net for a rebound chance, he got tied up with Blues defenseman Calle Rosen, and got sent straight into Binnington. He immediately went down and was removed from the game, and will miss the rest of the second round with a lower body injury.
O'Reilly said of losing Binnington that "Obviously, Binner's the heart and soul, playing unbelievable, but I think it kind of took the momentum away and took us a little too long to kind of get it back going again. Things like that happened. We're a deep team, and we could have done a better job of getting the momentum back and adjusting."
Up next, game 4 of the series is back in St. Louis on Monday night. There, the Avalanche will look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead, while the Blues look to even the series.
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