Canucks defeat Blues in OT in Game 2 of Western First Round, extend lead

Bo Horvat scored his second goal 5:55 into overtime on a breakaway, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in Game 2 to extend their lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference First Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.

"It was kind of a scramble behind our net and noticed that one of their defensemen was back there," Horvat said. "As soon as I saw [Quinn Hughes] come out of the pile with the puck, I just decided to take off. It was a heck of a play by Hughesy to get it to me, and luckily it went in."

Jaden Schwartz tied the game 3-3 for St. Louis with seven seconds left in the third period when a redirection by David Perron went in off his leg. The call on the ice was no goal because of a high stick by Perron, but it was reversed after video review.

WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Blues highlights]

Elias Pettersson had a goal and an assist, and Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for Vancouver, the No. 5 seed in the West.

"It's definitely a good response by the guys," said Canucks forward Tanner Pearson, who scored in the second period. "… To let the late one in, it could have taken the wind out of us, but we regrouped in the room, came out strong, and finished it off."

St. Louis, the No. 4 seed in the West, trailed 3-1 before Sammy Blais made it 3-2 when he scored unassisted off a turnover at 9:02 of the third.

"We had a lot of noise last year and look at what we did," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "It's a new year, obviously. We don't want to keep going back to last year, but the core of this group went through that together and we know how to bounce back from these things. We did tonight. I thought we played a good game, and more of that I think we'll find success."

The past two times a defending Stanley Cup champion lost the first two games in the first round it came back to win the series in six games, each time against the Blues (Chicago Blackhawks, 2014; Los Angeles Kings, 2013).

Game 3 is in Edmonton, the Western hub city, on Sunday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, FS-MW).

Teams with a 2-0 lead are 324-51 (86.4 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series.

"I just said, 'Hey, if you would've given us overtime in Game 2 to go up 2-0, we would've taken that a couple of days ago and ran with it. Let's go win the game,'" coach Travis Green said of his message to the Canucks after the third period.

Pettersson batted in a rebound at the left of the net to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead at 5:36 of the third.

Ryan O'Reilly got the Blues within 2-1 with a power-play goal at 18:56 of the second after Pearson scored a power-play goal with a one-timer off a pass from Pettersson to put the Canucks ahead 2-0 at 13:01.

"We showed good resilience sticking with it, finding a way to get that (tying) goal," O'Reilly said. "I think we went into OT confident that we were going to make it happen, and it's one bad little break. That's the way it is. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes we're on the other end of it. But we're putting this behind us, focus on the next game."

The two goals were the first by the Blues in the third period in five postseason games. They have been outscored 10-2 in the third.

Horvat scored shorthanded on an end-to-end rush at 7:23 of the first period by skating past Brayden Schenn and around Schwartz before flipping the puck past goalie Jordan Binnington to make it 1-0.

Horvat leads the NHL with six goals in six games in the postseason.

J.T. Miller scored at 3:58 of the second for the Canucks, but Blues coach Craig Berube challenged for offside, and the call on the ice was overturned after video review.

Vancouver was 2-for-3 on the power-play and is 5-for-9 in the series.

"There was a lot of good things, but we've got to limit our mistakes and we've got to kill penalties better, or just kill them off, and I think we'll be in better shape," Berube said. "It's adversity right now. We've just got to fight through it and win a game."

The Canucks have won five straight games since losing Game 1 to the Minnesota Wild in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers.

"Since we're here, we want to win," Pearson said. "It's a lot of fun winning this time of year. The more you do it, the more you come closer to what you've dreamed of as a kid. We've been on the right side of things for a bit now, and we got to keep our heads in it and focus on getting the next one."

Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers left the game 1:46 into the third period after he appeared to go headfirst into the boards on a hit by Schenn. No penalty was called. There was no update after the game.

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report