*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Series tied 1-1
This was a critical game for both teams, to try and gain some momentum. Jordan Kyrou scored, David Perron tallied two goals, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Colorado Avalanche with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night in Denver.
With the win, the Blues have pulled even in this second round series, handing the Avalanche their first loss of the playoffs in the process. It's a critical win for the Blues early in the series, because things can snowball quickly against a team like the Avalanche. Perron and Pavel Buchnevich were the leading scorers, each registering two points.
Blues head coach Craig Berube said that "We put pucks to good areas and were on it. We had numbers on it all night and made them play in their own end and did a good job. When the puck turned over or they get their possession, we reloaded well, and I thought that we did a good job coming back in our own zone, protecting the middle ice, and our D did a heck of a job of defending the rush, defending in our zone."
After a scoreless first period, Kyrou fired up the scoring in the second period, putting the Blues ahead 1-0 on his 5th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Buchnevich and Ryan O'Reilly. With 34 seconds left in the second, Perron converted on a power play goal, making it 2-0 Blues after two periods.
On the power play early in the 3rd period, Gabe Landeskog got the Avalanche on the board with his 4th goal of the playoffs, making it a 2-1 game. Perron then restored the two goal lead, making it 3-1 at the 10:31 mark of the 3rd. Brandon Saad added an empty net goal late to seal up the 4-1 win for the Blues.
Perron said of the game "That's playoffs right there for you, a big roller coaster. Obviously, we didn't feel good about ourselves that last game. We probably had two or three players that had good games. That was it. Tonight we had a lot more guys, and it was important to find a way to win one here on the road, just like we did last time against Minnesota."
Getting the bounce back win in net for the Blues was Jordan Binnington. He excelled in game two, saving 30 of the 31 shots he faced, the only blemish being Landeskog's goal. That was good for a .968 save percentage as he picked up his first win of the series.
For the Avalanche, Darcy Kuemper couldn't pick up his second straight win in this one. Kuemper turned aside 28 out of the 31 shots on goal he was tasked with stopping, recording a .903 save percentage in the loss.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said that "No. 1, we got out-worked and out-skated, so that makes everything more difficult. It's one game. We knew this was going to be a long, hard series. This is a really good team. They answered back after a bad night in Game 1. Now the onus is on us. We have to do the exact same thing."
Up next, the series shifts to St. Louis, with game 3 on Saturday night. There, both the Blues and Avalanche will try to take a 2-1 series lead prior to game 4.
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