The Blues scored two goals in 33 seconds in the third period to break open Game 6 and beat Dallas 4-1 on Sunday in Dallas.
The win evens the series at 3-3 and forces a Game 7 at Enterprise Center on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
"For me, it's even," coach Craig Berube said. "We're going into a Game 7. We've got to forget about this game, it's over with and we've got to prepare for a tough Game 7. That's the bottom line. ... Nothing's a gimme. It doesn't matter if they've had success or not there already. Game 7's are Game 7's, you know. You have to put it all on the line and be ready to go. And we will be. That's it."
The Blues are 5-1 on the road in the postseason, outscoring their opponents 11-2 in the third period of those games. They got an early goal by Alex Pietrangelo and, after Dallas tied the game later in the first, the Blues retook the lead on a goal by David Perron late in the second. Jordan Binnington stopped 22 of 23 shots he faced.
"I think that we did a good job for a full 60," said defenseman Colton Parayko, who changed the game with a slapshot in the third period. "We came out with a good start. Obviously we got one early there and we continued to press. Obviously they tied it up right after, but we didn't deviate away from our game and then we got the lead, we kept pushing in the third, which I liked a lot. We continued to push even though we had the lead. I think that's huge instead of just sitting back."
"We said it all series and all season that (we're) a group that's going to stick to that gameplan," Pietrangelo said "It might take us 'til the third period, but we're going to keep on playing the way we need to play."
The Blues broke the game open midway through the third.
The charge was set in motion when a rocket by Parayko caught Dallas goalie Ben Bishop in the collarbone and knocked him to the ice. Play continued with Bishop laying on his back and Alexander Steen threw the puck on the net and Jaden Schwartz tipped it in for his eighth goal of the postseason. (The rule says play continues until the team of the injured player gets the puck or in the case of a serious injury.)
"Obviously you're right there in the slot, you're going to try to shoot to score," Parayko said. "I was just trying to get it around their first guy and find a corner. I was shooting to score. I'm never out there to hurt nobody. Hopefully he's OK."
"The puck hit him in the shoulder and they didn't deem it serious," said Kay Whitmore, the referee supervisor for the series. "The scoring chance is imminent and it happened bang-bang and the puck's in the net. It wasn't a long duration of time. But the rule is pretty clear that in that situation, they're not going to kill it. As soon as his team would have got possession, they would have killed it immediately. That happens all the time. But in this situation, they didn't deem it serious enough to kill it immediately and they didn't get possession before the puck went in the net. It's pretty clear on how that rule works."
Bishop stayed down for a while and got a visit from the Stars trainer, but stayed in the game. Thirty-three seconds later, after a steal by Ryan O'Reilly, Sammy Blais, making his first appearance since March 12, got the puck on a breakaway, pulled up and fired a shot past Bishop.
That made Blais the 12th player in Blues history to score in his first postseason game and the first since Brad Boyes in 2009.
"We needed him to bring some energy and he did just that," Pietrangelo said. "He's playing as well as he's played all year, and this time of year, and it's not easy to come in this time of year, the level of hockey, and play the way he did today. He got rewarded with that goal. An impressive game."
The move to insert Blais was another decision that has worked out well for Berube. David Perron termed it a gutsy move on the coach's part.
"I just think that (Berube) wears his emotion and his pride and you can see he's got so much pride and he puts so much passion into everything that he does," Perron said. "He's so fun to play for and he made a big decision and it worked out."
"(Blais has) size, ability with the puck," Berube said. "We like Sammy a lot. He was playing really well before he got injured and then playoffs started. I think he was pretty much ready to go, but hadn't played. He's got size, he's physical and he's got good ability with the puck."
Bishop came out after the Blais goal and went to the dressing room. Anton Khudobin replaced him until he came out with about 4:45 to go as Dallas went with six attackers. But he had to go back ahead when Alexander Radulov was called for holding the stick. Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said after the game that Bishop was fine and that at that point, they just wanted to put Khudobin in.
"We didn't play on our toes to start the game," Montgomery said, "I thought our second period was good, had some really good looks but we didn't go tape to tape. Third period wasn't good enough. Instead of playing together, I thought we played individualistic and I thought they capitalized on it."
Perron knocked in a pass from Oskar Sundqvist with 4:36 to go in the second period to put the Blues up 2-1.
That was the only highlight of a low-key second period for the Blues, who managed just four shots on goal, but a step up from the second period of Game 5, where they got booed off the ice. But the Blues got a goal when Sundqvist chased down a pass and crossed it to Perron, who got his stick on the puck despite John Klingberg having inside position on him.
"I looked at (taking) the shot and I had a pretty bad angle," Sundqvist said. "I saw Perron on the backdoor and I know he's got a heavy stick and he's good at (being) in that area. I'm happy that he got that puck in. It's nice to see."
Pietrangelo scored 63 seconds into the game to put the Blues ahead but a power-play goal by Dallas tied it.
The Blues came out strongly again and had the first eight shots.
For the first goal, Joel Edmundson, who doesn't get down to that part of the ice very often, got the puck behind the goal and passed to Pietrangelo, who moved to the top of the slot for a shot that got past Ben Bishop with help from a screen by Brayden Schenn. (Edmundson's presence was so surprising that the Dallas stat crew gave the assist to Blais for several minutes before catching their mistake.)
It was the second goal of the postseason for Pietrangelo.
With 8:25 to go and Dallas on the power play after a slashing call on Vince Dunn, Mats Zuccarello got the puck to Tyler Seguin in front and he put the puck between Binnington's legs, with Binnington getting a piece of it and slowing it down but not stopping it.
The Blues had three power plays in the first period, but only 3:43 of ice time with a man advantage. After going the full two minutes on the first one, the next one lasted six seconds before Schenn was called for tripping (he might have been tripped first) and then the last one ended early when Pat Maroon was called for goalie interference.
Blais went into the lineup for Game 6, replacing Robby Fabbri.
