Lehkonen scores twice as Avalanche leads Blues and leads series | CBC Sports

Despite regaining the lead in their second round series, the Colorado Avalanche is not satisfied.

Artturi Lehkonen scored twice, Darcy Kuemper stopped 29 shots and the Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 in Game 3 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Logan O’Connor, Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog also scored as the Avalanche bounced back from a 4-1 loss at home two nights earlier and improved to 3-0 on the road in the postseason.

Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist, and Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues, who could have lost starting goalkeeper Jordan Binnington.

Binnington made three saves before leaving the game at 6:45 of the first period after Kadri and Blues defenseman Calle Rosen collided into him after their skates got tangled in the crease. No penalty was awarded on the play.

“Look at Kadri’s reputation,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “That’s all I have to say.”

The trainer added that Binnington was being evaluated for a lower body injury.

“I just see a loose puck, really,” Kadri said. “I was sitting behind him and I tried to hit him with my baton. I think his defense collided with me and pushed me into him. If that hadn’t been the case, I don’t think I would have hit.” him at all.”

After the match, while Kadri was being interviewed on television, he said a Blues player threw a water bottle at him and he thought it was Binnington.

Ville Husso stopped 19 of 23 shots in relief to fall 1-3 in the playoffs.

“I think there was a little bit of a change in momentum there,” O’Connor said of the Blues’ change of goalies. “I think even before that, we felt like our game was getting a little bit closer. We resisted it early. They were tough on us at first, really closing down on the defensive end. Then we started rolling things out a little bit more, getting a little more confidence with the puck.

Parayko scored his second goal of the postseason with a shot from the point 3:55 into the game to put St. Louis ahead 1-0.

O’Connor got his first at 11:54 to tie, and Kadri followed up with his second of the postseason when he deflected Cale Makar’s shot past Husso just after Pavel Buchnevich finished serving an interference penalty.

Lehkonen scored his third of the playoffs to put Colorado up 3-1 with 2:45 left in the second period. Nathan MacKinnon assisted on the goal to give him points in seven straight postseason games.

O’Reilly converted a Nick Leddy rebound for his seventh goal of the postseason to pull St. Louis within one with 29 seconds left in the half period.

“I think we were expecting a little bit more of a play,” O’Reilly said of the third period. “We lost our structure a little bit and got our numbers where we needed them to generate some offense. It wasn’t the best push on our part.”

Landeskog froze the game when he scored his fifth of the postseason with 2:08 remaining after Husso began skating off the ice for an additional hitter.

Lehkonen scored his second of the night with Husso thrown out to put Colorado up 5-2 in the final minute.

Girard injured, out for rest of playoffs

Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard had to be helped off the ice after his head hit the boards in a check by Ivan Barbashev 1:40 into the first half.

After the game, Bednar said Girard has a broken sternum and will be out for the rest of the postseason.

“I thought it was a legal check to be honest with you,” Bednar said. “In a way, he goes in on the side of the head, but he’s got a lot of body there. He just turned in the right direction and went in awkwardly. It was a heavy check. Unlucky.”