EDMONTON, Alberta _ David Perron's goal with 6.4 seconds remaining in regulation sent the Blues and Canucks into overtime tied 3-3 Friday at Rogers Place. The Blues trailed 3-1 with 11 minutes left in the third period before Sammy Blais scored to narrow the Vancouver lead and then Perron struck with his fourth goal of the postseason. It was originally disallowed because the officiating crew ruled Perron had deflected it in with a high stick.
But a relatively quick review showed that Perron's stick wasn't all that high, and the goal counted.
It didn't matter however, because Vancouver captain Bo Horvat owns the Blues. He scored his second goal of the night 5 minutes, 55 seconds into overtime. The Blues are now down two games to none in this series with the next game coming Sunday.
The Blues don't have anything resembling an answer for Horvat so far in this series. Horvat scored twice in Wednesday's series opener, a 5-2 Canucks victory, the second of which came on a mesmerizing move around Vince Dunn.
Horvat was up to his old tricks Friday, with a couple of mesmerizing moves _ this time around Brayden Schenn in the neutral zone and then Jaden Schwartz in the Blues' zone. Once he got by Schwartz, it was just Horvat and goalie Jordan Binnington _ and Horvat won that battled once again.
It was a short-handed goal, giving the Canucks a 1-0 lead at the 7:23 mark of the opening period.
Vancouver's special teams have ruled in this series, especially their power play, and they struck again on an Elias Pettersson goal with Perron off for interference. Justin Faulk broke a stick on the play and he had just gotten one from a teammate on the play when Pettersson shot and scored at the 5:36 mark of the period.
But things got interesting when Blais came up with a turnover deep in the Vancouver zone and skated in to beat Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom and cut the Vancouver lead to 3-2 at the 9:02 mark.
The Blues pulled Binnington with 1:50 to play. And with just 6.4 seconds remaining, Perron made amends for his penalty deflecting in a shot by Alex Pietrangelo to tie the game. At first the goal was disallowed for a high stick by Perron on the deflection, but it was overruled after a relatively quick review and the game was tied and headed for overtime.
The Blues played pretty well in the period all things considered, outshooting the Canucks for the fourth period in a row in this series. This time it was 12-10 in shots on goal, but on balance Vancouver had the better chances, getting plenty of bodies in front of the net on a couple of unsuccessful goal crease scrambles.
The Canucks' speed gave the Blues trouble when it came to chasing down some loose pucks.
The Blues did have a couple of prime chances late in the period but Vladimir Tarasenko shot wide and Markstrom turned away Schwartz in close.
Disaster nearly struck the Blues once again early in the second period, this time right after a St. Louis power play ended. Vancouver's J.T. Miller, penalized for slashing Pietrangelo, came out of the box just in time for a pass coming out of the neutral zone.
He skated in alone to beat Binnington with just over 16 minutes left in the second. But the Blues challenged for offsides and it was a pretty quick ruling _ Miller had crossed the blueline before touching the puck so his goal was disallowed.
So wiping away that Miller shot, it took Vancouver more than 11 minutes before they got their first shot on goal of the period. Even so, the Canucks found the back of the net with 6:59 left in the period _ and this time it counted.
With Alexander Steen off for hooking, Tanner Pearson snuck in behind a Blues defender, took a dart of a pass from Pettersson and beat Binnington with a one-timer. So it was 2-0 Vancouver and looking bleak for St. Louis.
But then things got a little chippy as the period was winding down. Zach Sanford and Vancouver's Zack MacEwen got into a fight prior to a faceoff at center ice with 2:30 left. Just 23 seconds later, Blais hammered Brandon Sutter in the corner, knocking him to the ice.
Jay Beagle came crashing in, slamming into Blais, with the two tumbling to the ice. Beagle got a double minor, he was the third man in. Blais, back in the lineup after sitting out the series opener with a leg/knee injury, got just two minutes so the Blues went on the power play.
The Blues had been 0 for 5 on the power play to that point, but Ryan O'Reilly, faking Alexander Edler to the ice, beat Markstrom for his first goal of the series, cutting the Vancouver led to 2-1 with 1:04 left in the second.
