AvsBluesG3P

(1C) Avalanche at (3C) Blues
Best-of-7 series tied, 1-1
8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS

The Colorado Avalanche will look to reestablish their winning formula in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.
The Avalanche's 4-1 loss in Game 2 at Ball Arena in Denver on Thursday marked their first defeat in six Stanley Cup Playoffs games this postseason; they swept the Nashville Predators in four straight in the first round and won 3-2 in overtime in Game 1 against the Blues on Tuesday.
Colorado has lost in the second round each of the past three seasons.
"I feel good about our team," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I'm in the same mindset as the players. We've played really well to this point, had a letdown in Game 2, and now we're looking to move past that one. I think our team's going to have a big effort tonight."
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Blues series coverage]
When a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 229-115 (.667). The team that takes a 2-1 lead in a best-of-7 series has a series record of 371-163 (.695), but that includes 2-5 (.286) in the 2022 First Round.
St. Louis is expected to stay with the 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup it has used since Game 4 of the first round.
Here are 3 keys for Game 3:

1. Possession is paramount

Colorado wants to move and possess the puck longer in an attempt to provide forwards time to enter the offensive zone and establish time there.
"No one wanted to skate with the puck (in Game 2)," Bednar said, "so you don't get time for the play to develop up the ice and allow forwards to get to where they want to go before we're giving it to them. The Blues did a nice job in the neutral zone, but we didn't move so we made the job easy on them."
Bednar wants his team to gain the red line with speed and make a concerted effort to keep St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington in his crease.
"In Game 1, we kept the puck away from the goalie on our dumps," Bednar said. "If we rimmed it, it was a hard rim along the glass, and we were getting to it. In Game 2, it seemed most of our dumps went right to Binnington, so they could bring them out."

2. Controlling Cale

Makar, a finalist for the Norris Trophy voted as the best defenseman in the NHL, has found it hard to operate at optimal speed against the Blues.
"He's such a great skater that if you can angle him and get the puck out of his hands quickly, that takes away a lot," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "We've been doing a good job of it so far."
The 23-year-old defenseman, who led the Avalanche with 10 points (three goals, seven assists) and had 20 shots with a plus-4 rating against the Predators in the first round, has no points, nine shots and a minus-2 rating in Games 1 and 2 of this series.
"There's a lot of times I can work myself out of the situations," Makar said, "but just haven't been able to the past two games because of lack of juice or whatnot. I think a lot of it goes on me, but I give them a lot of credit; they've done a good job.
"It's playoff time, so you have to find a way."

3. The best of Binnington

The Blues goalie must continue to defy the odds as the best player on the ice to give St. Louis any chance to win the series.
The 28-year-old has won four of his five starts this postseason, with 164 saves on 173 shots; his .948 save percentage is second to Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger (.954) among goalies who have played at least four games. In his one loss in Game 1 of this series, he made 51 saves. In Game 2, he made 30 to help the Blues square the series.
"'Binner' seems to rise to the bigger occasion and has in the past and is doing it now," Berube said. "His puck play again was really good, but (he's) making the save when he needed to keep it close or keep it at zero. That's obviously a big thing. You're going to need saves, that's the bottom line."

Avalanche projected lineup

Valeri Nichushkin -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nazem Kadri -- Artturi Lehkonen
Andre Burakovsky -- J.T. Compher -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Andrew Cogliano -- Nico Sturm -- Darren Helm
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Josh Manson
Bowen Byram -- Erik Johnson
Darcy Kuemper
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: Jack Johnson, Alex Newhook, Ryan Murray, Logan O'Connor, Kurtis MacDermid, Hunter Miska, Justus Annunen
Injured: None
Blues projected lineup
Pavel Buchnevich -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Ivan Barbashev -- Brayden Schenn -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Brandon Saad -- Robert Thomas -- Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko -- Tyler Bozak
Nick Leddy -- Colton Parayko
Calle Rosen -- Justin Faulk
Niko Mikkola -- Robert Bortuzzo
Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Ville Husso
Scratched: Logan Brown, Nathan Walker
Injured: Torey Krug (lower body), Marco Scandella (lower body)
Status report
There could be lineup changes for the Avalanche, but Bednar would not disclose any. ... O'Connor, a forward, could make his series debut. ... Landeskog did not take part in the Avalanche morning skate Saturday because of maintenance, but is expected to play. ... The Blues are 12-5-2 during the regular season and playoffs when they dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. ... Scandella took part in St. Louis' morning skate Saturday but will miss a fifth straight game.