EDMONTON, Alberta _ If the St. Louis Blues are to get out of this series alive, they must do it the hard way. Seemingly with all the momentum after a dominating 3-1 victory in Game 4, they slid back down the hill Wednesday night at Rogers Place.
A stinging 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks puts the Blues down three games to two in this best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series. The Blues need to win both Game 6 on Friday and Game 7 on Sunday to advance to the second round, where they will play either Vegas or Colorado.
The Blues squandered a 3-1 lead in the second period, allowing three unanswered goals before the period ended. They were swarming the Vancouver net at the end of the third period, and the puck crossed the goal line, but just a little bit late. After a brief review it was ruled no goal.
The Canucks, who showed signs of wearing down in Monday's contest, bounced back after a day off to regain the series lead Wednesday.
Goalie Jake Allen couldn't post his third consecutive victory in this series. Does Craig Berube go back to Jordan Binnington in Game 6? And after doing just fine without the injured Vladimir Tarasenko in back-to-back wins Sunday and Monday, well, that wasn't the case Wednesday.
Teams that have a 3-2 series lead go on to win the series 78.4% of the time in the NHL. Mathematics aside, the Blues know how that other 21.6% lives, coming back from a 3-2 series deficit to beat Dallas in last year's conference semifinals on Pat Maroon's double-overtime goal in Game 7.
At the 4:34 mark of the second, the Blues went on the power play after Brandon Sutter was called for high-sticking Vince Dunn. Shortly thereafter, Zach Sanford checked in with his first postseason goal _ a quick wrist shot that got by Jacob Markstrom and gave the Blues a 3-1 lead.
The Canucks were playing better and creating more chances than in the second period of Game 4 on Monday, but the Blues were controlling the action and had several chances to pad their lead, including a point-blank blast from Robert Thomas that Markstrom kept out of the net.
But the Blues seemed to relax bit, and the Canucks kept coming at them. Before you knew it goals by J.T. Miller, Jake Virtanen and Tyler Motte's second of the night made it a 4-3 Vancouver lead after two
Miller's fifth goal of the postseason came after a scrum in front of the St. Louis net. Allen couldn't quite control it, the Canucks kept working, and all of a sudden there was the puck slowly sliding into the net. So it was just a 3-2 Blues lead at the 11:54 mark.
Vancouver then tied it 4 { minutes later with Virtanen beating Allen from a tight angle. It was a strange sequence, with the Blues doing a lot of standing around, not challenging the puck. They were packed in tight almost as if they were on the penalty kill. In any event, Virtanen was allowed to walk in uncontested from the left wall and it was 3-3.
Next, Vancouver outworked the Blues in a puck battle, with Motte getting possession in the St. Louis zone and skating in alone to beat Allen. Bing. Bam. Boom. Three Vancouver goals in less than 6 { minutes leaving the Blues with work to do in the final period.
Aided by a delay-of-game penalty on Allen _ a trapezoid violation _ just 10 seconds into the contest, Vancouver got off to a quick start. They sent a lot of rubber at Allen, not worrying about the perfect look or clearest shooting lane. They just sent the puck at the net hoping for a miscue or a friendly rebound. At one point in the opening minutes the Vancouver edge was 7-2 in shots on goal although it remained scoreless.
The Blues picked up their pace and went on the power play after Ryan O'Reilly was tripped by Christopher Tanev after stealing the puck near the Vancouver blue line. However, in what was literally a tough break, Alex Pietrangelo broke his stick on a slapshot attempt just inside the blueline.
Motte raced down the ice on an attempted breakaway with Pietrangelo in close pursuit _ but minus a stick. Pietrangelo appeared to have him covered, but Motte deftly deked to his left, got away from Pietrangelo and sent a backhand past Allen at the 13:15 mark of the period.
But Brayden Schenn tied the game 2 { minutes later with his second goal of the series. Trailing on the play down the slot, he took a pass from Oskar Sundqvist, giving him a clean look at Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom.
The Blues then surprised the Canucks with a late goal _ one with 28.6 seconds left in the period to be exact. Not content to just run out the clock, Sammy Blais carried the puck into the Vancouver zone and dished to O'Reilly. With a bit of deception, O'Reilly skated in on Markstrom's left but then accelerated around the net and scored a wraparound goal to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead.
It looked like O'Reilly's shot deflected off the stick of Canucks defenseman Jordie Benn and past Markstrom.
St. Louis had all the momentum at the break. After that 7-2 deficit in shots on goal, the Blues outshot Vancouver 10-3 over the remainder of the period.
