ST. LOUIS _ On Jaden Schwartz's team-leading fourth goal of the postseason, the Blues staved off elimination with a 2-1 victory over Nashville in Game 5 Friday at Scottrade Center.
The Predators lead the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series 3-2, but will need a win at home in Game 6 at 2 p.m. Sunday in order to avoid a winner-take-all Game 7 Tuesday in St. Louis.
It's one game at a time for the Blues, who are attempting what only 10 percent of teams in NHL history have accomplished, climbing back to win a series they trailed 3-1.
After a dropping Games 3 and 4 in Nashville, they returned home to a crowd of 19,168, who panicked a bit after watching Alexander Steen take warmups but then get scratched due to a lower-body injury. But in Steen's place, forgotten forward Dmitrij Jaskin, who had yet to make an appearance this postseason, scored a second-period goal that got the Blues going, and after Nashville tied it on a power-play goal by James Neal later in the period, Schwartz netted the game-winner just 25 seconds into the third period.
The Blues had failed miserably on another power play _ a theme in Game 5 _ but eight seconds after it expired, Schwartz put in his own rebound for a 2-1 lead.
Nashville's Roman Josi attempted to clear the puck from behind his net, but his rim-around was intercepted by Blues defenseman Colton Parayko. His point shot was deflected by Schwartz and stopped by Rinne, but Schwartz quickly cleaned up the loose puck.
The Blues stayed on the throttle, outshooting Nashville 13-8 in the third period and 32-22 overall. Jake Allen made 31 saves for his sixth win of the playoffs.
The Blues were not pleased with the officiating in Game 4 after a scrum led to controversial power play for Nashville, which scored a man-advantage goal en route to a 2-1 victory.
The Blues could have no qualms with the referees in Game 5, handed five power plays for a total of 7:31 of ice time and generating only three shots on goal. It got to the point Friday where fans were pleading if possible for the club to decline the power play.
That's not possible, of course, but interestingly a sequence in which the Predators could have been called for tripping but weren't led to the Blues' first goal of the game.
Early in the second period, Schwartz was knocked down on a drive to the net and play continued until Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne covered it up for a whistle.
Instead of having their much-maligned power play taking, the Blues set up for a faceoff with the line of Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and Jaskin.
Just eight second later, on a draw won by Berglund and fed from Sobotka to Alex Pietrangelo, Jaskin gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 5:43 into the second period. Pietrangelo's point shot was stopped by Rinne, but Jaskin was on the spot for the rebound.
It took five games, but the Blues could finally claim scoring the game's first goal in this series. The Predators had done so in the first four.
Once again, the Blues had another good start, but it never materialized into anything. They had a considerable amount of time in the offensive zone in the first period and outchanced Nashville, but couldn't put any of their nine shots past Rinne.
The problem was the Blues should have had far more than nine shots in the period, considering they had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:50 late in the period. Nashville's James Neal and Mattias Ekholm took back-to-back high-sticking penalties, and Ekholm's was a four-minute double-minor.
The Blues went on a two-man advantage with under two minutes left to play in the opening period with eight shots on goal and had just nine when it was over. Yes, they had only one shot on goal _ a 45-footer from Pietrangelo that Rinne swallowed up with his glove _ on an extended 5-on-3.
