The Colorado Avalanche swept the St. Louis Blues in the 2021 playoffs and their series opener in 2022 hinted at a similar scenario.
Despite a near-perfect performance from Jordan Binnington — and his posts — the Avalanche needed overtime to defeat the Blues 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead in their NHL second-round series .
Defender Josh Manson ended the start of overtime with a sharp shot into the top of the net.
Samuel Girard and Valeri Nichuskin also hit the target for the Avalanche. Gabriel Landeskog had two assists.
Ryan O’Reilly scored in a fifth straight game and tied a team record in the backhand. Jordan Kyrou threaded the needle late in the third period to force overtime.
Binnington stopped 51 shots in the loss.
Darcy Kuemper received less than half the shots of his counterpart and stopped 23 shots.
Game 2 of the series is Thursday in Denver. The series heads to St. Louis on Saturday for Game 3.
The visitors, however, were the first to hit the mark. They did it quickly in the first half.
O’Reilly took advantage of a defensive turnover by the Avalanche to head alone past Kuemper. Despite the short distance, he produced a nice maneuver before lodging the puck in the top of the net.
The Blues captain has scored in the last five meetings. He tied a team mark in the playoffs in that regard.
The Avalanche failed to get on the scoreboard in the first period, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. He hit the post three times in the first period.
Luck finally smiled on him when he returned from the locker room.
Nichushkin was the first of the Avalanche to vibrate the ropes. He jumped on the return of Mikko Rantanen’s shot to score his third goal of this series.
Midway through the middle period, Girard gave his team the lead with a powerful slapshot that found its way between Binnington’s pads.
The third period was again the business of the Avalanche who dominated in terms of scoring chances. Jared Bednar’s troops were once again frustrated by the post and some spectacular saves from Binnington.
Kyrou took advantage of a bad change in the Avalanche’s penalty kill unit to take several players on the wrong foot. His shot also surprised Kuemper in its movement and managed to sneak under the pads of the Canadian goalkeeper.
In an overtime period that looked like a power play for the Avalanche, Manson took advantage of the traffic in front of the Blues goaltender to find a crack in the Binnington wall.