Ryan O’Reilly’s hat trick sends St. Louis Blues past Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche became the last team in the NHL to hit double-digit losses Saturday in St. Louis.
Less than 48 hours after clinching a playoff spot at Enterprise Center, the Avalanche fell behind during a third period 5-on-3 and lost, appropriately, 5-3. Former teammate Ryan O’Reilly scored a hat trick for the Blues.
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each had a goal and two assists. Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves in his first loss with Colorado.
St. Louis’ postseason fate isn’t decided. The Blues, battling the Arizona Coyotes for the fourth spot in the West Division, turned it around after falling behind early.
“I don’t think we got off our game too much tonight, just a few lapses and then they were able to capitalize on that,” Makar said. “It’s an opportunistic team that likes to funnel pucks at the net.”
The Avalanche jumped out to 2-0 lead and it disappeared just as quickly. Just over a minute and a half into the game, Makar scored on a 5-on-3 to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Gabriel Landeskog, who had his nose bloodied as he drew that power play, doubled the lead 3:01 into the game. Landeskog won the faceoff and Makar wrapped it around the net. The puck came through the crease back to Landeskog, who buried the chance.
“You could see on the bench, there was a lot of hockey left, and guys got angry,” O’Reilly, who played for Colorado the year the team drafted him in 2009 to 2015, said.
“I just decided to leave it out there every shift. Get lost in the game and just be relentless.”
O’Reilly won puck battles along the boards with MacKinnon and Makar before centering to teammate Jordan Kyrou. The puck landed in front of Devon Toews and the Colorado defenseman swiped it into his own net.
The team captains went head-to-head as Landeskog sprawled to keep O’Reilly from passing to tie the game. O’Reilly stickhandled and went to his backhand before flipping the puck over Dubnyk’s shoulder. His goals came 2:51 apart. His empty-netter clinched the win.
“I think we probably had more chances in the first period off the rush than we had all last game,” coach Jared Bednar said. “The problem was, so did they.”
MacKinnon canceled out Ivan Barbashev’s go-ahead goal in the only scoring play of the second period. He one-timed a pass from Makar from the top of the faceoff circle. The star forward has points in 13 straight games (eight goals, 16 assists).
Bednar said the team talked about being better defensively during the second period. It cut the Blues’ shots on goal from 13 to 5.
“We felt good about being there the way the second period went, and the penalties killed us,” Bednar said.
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