Tyler Bozak scored 3:38 into overtime to keep the St. Louis Blues alive in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, overturning a three-goal deficit to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Bozak capped a spectacular comeback for St. Louis with a shot from near the blueline that beat Darcy Kuemper.
For a tenacious Blues club, Robert Thomas scored two goals, including the game-tying goal with 56 seconds left in regulation.
According to NHL Stats, it’s the Blues’ latest game-tying goal when facing elimination. Justin Faulk and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored, while Nick Leddy had four assists and Pavel Buchnevich had two.
The comeback overshadowed Nathan MacKinnon’s hat trick, which looked like he might have just scored a signature goal with goal No. 3.
He skated end-to-end, using nifty stick movement to go by Blues defenseman Leddy and hoist a shot over keeper Ville Husso for a 4-3 lead. It was his second career hat trick in the postseason.
Hats are thrown into the ice. It wouldn’t suffice.
Thomas tied it up for an extra skater on the bench with Husso, laying the setup for Bozak.
Game 6 will take place in St. Louis on Friday.
The Blues have twice in their history come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series: in 1999 against Phoenix and 1991 against Detroit.
The Avalanche, who were on the verge of reaching the Western Conference final for the first time since 2002, also had two assists from Captain Gabriel Landeskog.
Instead, they must wait — and speculate. The Avalanche have struggled mightily in the second round. In each of the last three postseasons, they’ve been eliminated at this point.
For St. Louis, Husso made 30 saves. When Jordan Binnington was hurt in Game 3 after a collision between Nazem Kadri and Blues defenseman Calle Rosen forced Kadri to collide with Binnington, he took over.
Following that, Kadri received racist murder threats on social media, prompting extra security to keep him safe. In Game 4, he answered with a hat trick. Fans along the boards hoisted signs that read “Stand with Naz” on Wednesday.
Kuemper made 25 saves.
In the first period, MacKinnon was all over the place, taking five shots and scoring twice to put Colorado up 2-0. Those were MacKinnon’s first two goals in the series, and he now has seven in the playoffs.
MacKinnon also earned an assist, giving him 82 points in the playoffs.
He joined Sakic (188), Peter Forsberg (159), and Peter Stastny as the fourth player in franchise history with 80 or more postseason points (81).
Furthermore, according to NHL Stats, he tied with his teammate and training partner Sidney Crosby for the fourth-fewest games (59) to achieve the 80-point level. Wayne Gretzky (37), Mario Lemieux (40), and Jari Kurri were the only players to complete the feat faster (57).
Tarasenko scored his first goal of the series 10 1/2 minutes after Landeskog made it 3-0 just over 4 minutes into the second period to give the Blues a boost.
