Blues win Game 4 against Canucks, even Western First Round series

Ryan O'Reilly had two goals and an assist, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.

The win tied the best-of-7 series for St. Louis, the No. 4 seed in the West. Jake Allen made 22 saves, and Alex Pietrangelo had a goal and an assist.

Game 5 will be in Edmonton, the Western hub city, on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, FS-MW).

O'Reilly has three goals in the past three games for the Blues; he did not score in their first four games this postseason.

"Obviously I want to perform at the key times, and it was nice to get on the board tonight," O'Reilly said. "I haven't been creating much offensively, so it was nice to put the puck in the back of the net. It's just one game. I've got to be consistent and lead the way in that area."

WATCH: [All Blues vs. Canucks Game 4 highlights]

J.T. Miller scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for Vancouver, the No. 5 seed in the West, which had a 2-0 lead in the series.

"I don't think anyone thought we were going to come into this series and just, that St. Louis was going to roll over," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "[The] Stanley Cup champs are a really good hockey team. Every game's been a battle, every game's been close. I expect every game to look a lot like the first four."

Allen, who made 39 saves in a 3-2 overtime win in Game 3 on Sunday, made back-to-back starts for the first time since March 30-31, 2018.

"This year is a unique situation and I knew I had to be ready," Allen said. "You don't have 82 games to prep yourself for the playoffs. It was just working hard, being ready, got a chance and trying to make the most of it. The guys have played really hard the last couple of nights and hats off to them; [they] made my job not overly difficult and it got us right back in the series here."

O'Reilly scored a power-play goal on a rebound of Pietrangelo's shot off the end boards to give the Blues a 1-0 lead at 16:43 of the first.

Miller tied it 40 seconds into the second period when he tipped Alexander Edler's point shot to make it 1-1.

O'Reilly's second of the game gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 6:52 of the second. He got the puck in the left circle, skated in and put a backhand over Markstrom's left shoulder.

"Things are going his way right now," Markstrom said of O'Reilly. "First (goal), shot off the board and he's standing right there and gets the bounce off the boards on his tape. The second, he's in a goal-scoring area in the front of the net and does a good backhand."

Pietrangelo made it 3-1 during a 5-on-3 power-play when his pass attempt hit Edler's stick and went past Markstrom at 15:47 of the second.

"Obviously we've taken a lot of penalties early on in the game," Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev said. "I mean, throughout the series, I think we've killed pretty well. They get a shot off the back wall, goes right to O'Reilly -- goal -- and one 5-on-3 off [Edler's] stick that goes in our own net."

St. Louis was 2-for-5 on the power play after it scored twice in 11 opportunities in the first three games of the series.

Blues forward David Perron had two assists.

"We've got to keep momentum, keep playing the same way," Perron said. "We could have won Game 2 but it didn't happen, so let's just keep playing the way we are right now."

The Canucks were 0-for-7 on the power play; they were 6-for-11 through the first three games.

"We've been making adjustments as we go just based on what they do," Pietrangelo said. "Last game, they scored the one on the rush, but I thought we did a better job. More of the same. Big thing for us is clearing the puck when we have an opportunity. We were much better with that tonight."

The team that wins Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead is 211-58 (78.4 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series.

"We knew it was a tall task and we were a shot away from going up 3-0 (in Game 3)," Miller said. "It's not like we're getting our (rear ends) whooped up and down the rink. They're a good team, we're a good team. It's going to be a hard, long series. We signed up for that."

Blues forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen were unfit to play for a second straight game.

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report