EDMONTON, Alberta _ Just two days ago the St. Louis Blues were looking up at the upstart Vancouver Canucks, down two games to none. Now, after winning for the second time in 24 hours, they're eye-to-eye.
Following up on their Sunday night midnight magic, the Blues defeated the Canucks 3-1 Monday at Rogers Place, sweeping their first playoff back-to-back since 2004. Now tied at two games apiece, this series suddenly has morphed into a best-of-3 affair.
First one to win two goes on; first one to lose two goes home.
Ryan O'Reilly scored twice and had an assist for the Blues, and Alex Pietrangelo added the third goal, with Jake Allen sharp in goal once again.
St. Louis won Monday going back to Allen in goal following his superb 39-save performance in Sunday's 3-2 overtime victory. It's unusual, but not unheard of for a goalie to play both ends of a back-to-back. And Allen pulled it off.
The last time he started a back-to-back was in his last season as the team's No. 1 goalie, in 2017-18. He won on March 23 at home against Vancouver, and then won in Columbus the next day, allowing only one goal in each game.
In recent years, the Blues have been very strong when playing games on successive days. But not so much this year. During the regular season, they were 5-4-1 on the front end of back-to-backs and 6-4-0 on the back end.
Even so, the Sunday-Monday wins marked the fifth time they've swept a back-to-back this season, last accomplishing the feat on Feb. 20 and 21, with wins over Arizona and then Dallas.
The Blues got referees Kelly Sutherland and T.J. Luxmore for the first time in the Edmonton bubble. They came with their whistles. There were nine penalties called in the first period, capped by double minors assessed to Sammy Blais and Vancouver's Antoine Roussel late in the period.
Roussel took a run at Zach Sanford; Blais responded with a run at Roussel. Next thing you know they were both wrestling on the ice not far from the Vancouver goal.
The Canucks entered Game 4 having converted on six of 11 power play attempts. So it wasn't a good omen for the Blues when they were penalized three times in the first 14 minutes. Allen made some of his best work on a couple of those Canucks power plays.
He stopped Brock Boeser twice in front of the net in rapid succession on one of the power plays, and handled a deflection from the near slot by Boeser on another.
The Blues were aided by the fact that in the final minute of two of those Vancouver penalties, the Canucks were sent to the box, evening things up.
The Blues were just two-for-12 in the series with the man advantage when they went on their second power play of the night. They converted on this one with O'Reilly, stationed beside the Vancouver net, poking in the rebound of a Pietrangelo shot behind Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom.
O'Reilly's second goal of this postseason gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with 3:17 left in the period. Up till that point the Blues had led for only 37 seconds in the entire series.
It was a sluggish start, with both teams undoubtedly feeling the effects of Sunday night's overtime thriller. The Canucks had the early edge in play, but the Blues picked up their play as the period progressed.
That 1-0 lead lasted only 40 seconds into the second period. J.T. Miller scored on a deflection of an Alexander Edler shot after the Blues had trouble clearing their zone. Just nine seconds later, Colton Parayko was whistled for delay of game for sending the puck over the glass.
Was the momentum shifting Vancouver's way?
Nope. Not unlike the first period, the Blues picked up their game as the second period progressed. Even stronger in fact, outshooting the Canucks 17-5 and outscoring them 2-0 in the period.
O'Reilly struck again, with his second goal of the game to break the 1-1 tie at the 6:52 mark of the period. David Perron did the heavy lifting on the play, winning a puck battle with two Canucks and feeding O'Reilly in the near slot. O'Reilly skated in and beat Markstrom with a backhand.
Next it was Vancouver's turn to get into penalty trouble. First Zack MacEwen was sent to the box for goalie interference on Allen. Translation: He ran over Allen when he didn't have to.
With 52 seconds left on that Vancouver penalty Oscar Fantenberg joined his teammate in the box for boarding Robert Thomas. The Blues couldn't score on a 5-on-3 to save their life during the regular season. Apparently the postseason is different.
Pietrangelo scored his first goal of the postseason with just four seconds left on the 5-on-3. The goal originally was credited to Brayden Schenn but changed to Pietrangelo.
The Blues nearly made it a 4-1 game in the final minute, but Markstrom stopped an Oskar Sundqvist shot on a 2-on-1 rush.
St. Louis kept the pressure on in the third, smothering the Canucks with their forecheck and usually getting two men on one Vancouver puckhandler along the wall. They survived an early penalty on Schenn for high-sticking as well.
As the third period started to wind down, the Blues didn't sit on their heels but they played it a little more conservatively. They killed off yet another Vancouver penalty late in the third when Vince Dunn went off for slashing. That made the Canucks 0-for-6 on the power play for the night.
