Blues at home with confidence for Game 6 vs. avalanche

ST. LOUIS — Cale Makar boarded a plane for St. Louis, leaving behind one thing he doesn’t quite believe travels from game to game or city to city: momentum.

The colorado avalanche I hope the young defender is right after blowing a three-goal lead in an extra-time loss. The St. Louis Blues are eager to prove that sentiment false.

“We’re still in a great spot right now,” said Makar, whose team leads 3-2 in a second-round series that moves to St. Louis for Game 6 on Friday night (8 p.m. ET, TNT). . “So that’s all that’s on my mind. … This (loss) is in the past and the momentum doesn’t carry over from game to game.”

The Blues were 56 seconds from the close of their season. Now, they head home full of confidence after rallying not once, but twice in Game 5 before fourth-row center Tyler Bozak scored the game-winner in overtime with a shot into traffic.

It was only the fifth time the Blues had rallied from a three-goal deficit to win in the postseason and the first time since 1998.

“We were tougher on the pucks. We were winning battles. We were controlling well. We were cornering them in the low zone”, explained Robert Thomas, who scored two goals, including the equalizer with 56 seconds remaining in regulation time. “We know what works and we know how we can have a chance to win every night.”

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The Avalanche took both games in St. Louis to bring their road record to 4-0 in these playoffs. The team has the benefit of a safety net with Game 7 in Denver on Sunday if needed. But it’s a safety net they’d rather not use.

“We think the only team that can beat us is ourselves,” said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, whose team is seeking to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2002. “True or not, I like that attitude. … If you sulk or live in the past or don’t stay in the moment, then you’re done.”

The Blues are on a wave of confidence after becoming the first team to score a pair of game-tying goals in the final five minutes of regulation as they face elimination, according to NHL Stats. That little piece of history was a pleasant plane ride home for the Blues.

Coach Craig Berube spent time on the air reviewing film of the game. What he saw was a team doing the little things that added up to a comeback for the ages.

“It’s important that you do the small things,” Berube said. “A lot of times it comes down to winning and losing.”

Colorado appeared to be well on its way to the next round after Nathan MacKinnon scored his third goal of the game in a big way – a masterpiece of end-to-end skating, capped off with a nifty move past a defender and an even higher shot. nifty with 2:46 left. . He energized the crowd and gave the Avalanche a 4-3 lead. but thomas bailed out the Blues with his late bill and Bozak then appeared on OT.

RELATED: Bozak caps rally with OT ot, Blues beat Avalanche 5-4 in Game 5

“I personally felt bad after the game because (MacKinnon) put us on his back and he should have won us that game and unfortunately we couldn’t get it,” Makar said. “I felt like we let him down, just as an individual and how well he played. That was the Nate of the playoffs right there. We expect nothing less.”

The Blues promised to reduce all that room for MacKinnon to maneuver as he recorded Colorado’s second straight hat-trick.

“We have to be tougher on him,” Berube said of MacKinnon, who scored his first three goals of the series. “Trying to take the disc out of his hands and give it to someone else. Get on it. It takes time and space away from him.”

The task for the Blues remains simple: maintain their rugged style.

“We didn’t want the season to end and we fought hard, we got some big goals at the end,” Bozak said. “It was incredible. We are excited for our next game. … Obviously, we want to use this as a boost.”

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