While the Colorado Avalanche still have two more opportunities to close out this series, this is a loss that will certainly haunt them if they fail to do so and lose in the second round for the fourth straight season.
It had all the makings of a classic hockey story to be told for years, especially with the stars coming to play. That started with their franchise superstar Nathan MacKinnon taking the game over scoring both goals in the first period to give the Avs a 2-0 lead. The captain Gabriel Landeskog scored early in the second to increase the lead to 3-0, and it seemed like the Avs were on their way to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2002.
But just like that, Vladimir Tarasenko planted the seed of doubt midway through the second with his first of the series to make it 3-1. That momentum then carried into the third period, with Robert Thomas and Justin Faulk scoring their first goals of the postseason to tie the game within six minutes of each other.
But MacKinnon was having none of that, as he went back to taking over the game just two minutes later. He went the full length of the ice, dangling Marco Scandella and Ville Husso to give the Avs the lead again with an absolutely gorgeous goal.
That would be enough to tie the game, right? Wrong. Thomas was hungry for another goal after getting his first, and tied the game with 56 seconds left to send it to overtime.
And overtime didn’t last too long, as Tyler Bozak was in a rush to head back to St. Louis, and scored the OT winner only 3:38 into overtime. With that goal, the Blues go home for Game 6 down 3-2 in the series, and look to take it to Game 7.
On top of Thomas’ two goals, defenseman Nick Leddy assisted on four of the Blues five goals in the game, while MacKinnon added an assist to his hat trick to give him a four point night as well.
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