DENVER — David Perron scored two goals for the St. Louis Blues, who evened the Western Conference Second Round with a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 2 at Ball Arena on Thursday.
Game 3 of the best-of-7 series will be in St. Louis on Saturday.
“That’s playoffs right there for you, a big roller coaster,” Perron said. “Obviously, we didn’t feel good about ourselves that last game (3-2 overtime loss in Game 1). 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 (in the first round).”
Jordan Kyrou and Brandon Saad scored, Pavel Buchnevich had two assists, and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues, who are the No. 3 seed from the Central Division.
It was St. Louis’ first playoff win against Colorado since Game 3 of the 2001 Western Conference Final (lost previous eight).
“We did a good job, and we forechecked hard tonight,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “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.
“We played good hockey all year. It’s a good group of guys that want to win. They know in Game 1 they didn’t do well enough, and all year they’ve responded when things [get hard]. You go over things and you tell them why and you show them why, and they respond.”
[RELATED: Complete Avalanche vs. Blues series coverage]
Gabriel Landeskog scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for the Avalanche, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central and lost for the first time this postseason.
“No. 1, we got out-worked and out-skated, so that makes everything more difficult,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “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.”
Kyrou gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 5:45 of the second period when his wrist shot from the right circle on a solo rush deflected off the stick of Samuel Girard and beat Kuemper over his left shoulder.
“Big goal by Kyrou,” Berube said. “He was skating and attacking, and he had a couple other good looks.”
Perron pushed it to 2-0 at 19:26 when his one-timer from the left circle ramped up off the stick of Josh Manson and went under Kuemper’s right arm during a 5-on-3 power play.
“We were pretty comfortable. We made some good plays,” Perron said. “We also, I think, can be even better, which is a good sign when you play a good game.”
Landeskog scored his own power-play goal to cut it 2-1 at 1:49 of the third period.
“We still had a chance to tie it up. Gabe scored that goal, we were feeling good,” Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. “It felt like the building was back in it. We had our legs back a little bit, and just a little miscommunication, that kind of sums up our night, in the third there off the face-off. They ended it, but got to move on.”
Perron scored on a wrist shot off the heel of Kuemper’s glove on a 2-on-1 to make it 3-1 at 10:31. His goal came after Andre Burakovsky and Cale Makar turned the puck over following a miscommunication at the left point.
“I just kind of took a step to the middle and the ‘D’ didn’t really come my way,” Perron said. “If he did, probably I’d just slide it over the stick to [Buchnevich] hoping that he scores, but [it] went in. It was a big goal for us. That was important.”
Saad shot into an empty net at 18:10 for the 4-1 final.
“We didn’t have our jump tonight. Our execution was off,” MacKinnon said. “Just weren’t feeling it. Just fighting it out there, and it’s unfortunate, but it’s 1-1. We get to go on the road and hopefully steal one there, hopefully two, and we got to forget about it and move on and get back to the way we can play.”
NOTES: Perron is the first Blues player to score seven goals in the first eight games of a single postseason since Shayne Corson in 1996. … Blues forward Ryan O’Reilly had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, three assists). … St. Louis has scored at least one power-play goal in all eight playoff games (10-for-29). … MacKinnon had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, three assists). … Landeskog, MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen have factored in on the same goal 13 times in the playoffs, the second most by a trio in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history (Peter Forsberg, Valeri Kamensky and Claude Lemieux did it 14 times).
