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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Arturi Lehkonen marked twice, Darcy Kuemper stopped 29 shots and the Colorado avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 in Game 3 of their second-round series on Saturday night.
Logan O’Connor, Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog also scored as the Avalanche for a 2-1 best-of-seven series lead. Colorado improved to 3-0 on the road in the playoffs.
Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist, and Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues. Jordan Binington started in goal for St. Louis and made three saves before leaving the game at 6:45 of the first period after Kadri and the Blues defender Rosen Street collided with him after tangling their skates in the crease. No penalty was called on the play.
City Husso stopped 19 of Binnington’s 23 relief shots to drop to 1-3 in the playoffs.
Game 4 is Monday night in St. Louis.
Parayko scored his second goal of the playoffs on a slap shot from the point 3:55 into the game to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
O’Connor got his first at 11:54 to tie, and Kadri followed with his second of the playoffs when he deflected Cale Makarslap shot past Husso right after Pavel Buchnevich finished serving an interference penalty.
Lehkonen scored his third of the playoffs to give Colorado a 3-1 lead with 2:45 left in the second period. Nathan MacKinnon assisted on goal to give him points in seven straight playoff games.
O’Reilly took advantage of a rebound from Nick Leddy for his seventh goal of the playoffs to bring St. Louis to within one with 29 seconds left midway through the period.
Landeskog froze the game when he scored his fifth of the playoffs with 2:08 left after Husso started skating off the ice for an extra forward.
Lehkonen scored his second of the night with Husso retired to give Colorado a 5-2 lead in the final minute.
INJURED GIRARD
Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard had to be helped off the ice after his head slammed into the board during a Ivan Barbaschev 1:40 in the first period. Girard was ruled out with an upper body injury and was transported to a St. Louis area hospital for further evaluation.
GROOVES
O’Reilly has at least one point in seven straight games. He has scored seven goals and four assists during his streak
BENCH PATTERN
Blues coach Craig Berube coached his 48th playoff game with the franchise that moved Ken Hitchcock to third place in team history.
POWER OF THE HALL OF FAME
Former Blues defenseman and Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger was shown on the video board at the Enterprise Center. Pronger, whose number 44 was retired by the club earlier this season, drank a beer to the delight of the crowd, re-enacting a scene from his shirt removal ceremony.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
David Solomon, The Associated Press
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