DENVER — The Blues' 2021-22 season will live to fight at least one more game.
It took an epic comeback to win Game 5 on Wednesday night in Denver, but the Blues pulled out a 5-4 win over the Avalanche to send the series back to St. Louis for Game 6 on Friday.
Here's how Game 5 broke down.
Avalanche captain Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring with his first goal of the series less than four minutes into Game 5. He followed that up with another goal with less than two minutes left in the first period to make it 2-0.
The Avalanche looked to be piling it on as captain Gabriel Landeskog opened the second period scoring to make it 3-0.
That's when the Blues' comeback took shape.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first goal of the series with close to five minutes left in the second to make it a 3-1 game. Then, Robert Thomas scored his first goal of the playoffs close to halfway through the third period, to make it a 3-2 game. To complete the comeback to tie the game, Justin Faulk netted his first goal of the playoffs with less than five minutes left, to square things at 3 goals apiece.
However, Nathan MacKinnon proved again why he was the best player on the ice on Wednesday night with a mesmerizing end-to-end goal to complete the hat trick and put the Avalanche up 4-3 with just under two minutes left.
The twists and turns of this game didn't end there, though.
With Blues goaltender Ville Husso pulled and under a minute left in the game, Thomas got his second goal of the third period to tie the game again, and send Game 5 to overtime.
And then in overtime, Tyler Bozak slipped a shot past Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper to seal the win and send the series back to St. Louis
Husso stopped 30 of 34 Colorado shots in the Game 5 win.
The series will resume with Game 6 on Friday night at Enterprise Center. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m.