Canucks put Blues on brink with Game 5 win in Western First Round

Tyler Motte scored two goals, and the Vancouver Canucks rallied to put the St. Louis Blues on the brink of elimination with a 4-3 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday.

J.T. Miller and Jake Virtanen each had a goal and an assist, and Jacob Markstrom made 36 saves for Vancouver, the No. 5 seed in the West, which trailed 3-1 before scoring three goals in 6:23 in the second period.

"It's huge. You need production up and down the lineup, especially in the playoffs," said Motte, who scored his first two NHL postseason goals. "Every game is going to be a battle, so for us to be able to contribute that way tonight, it was important for us."

Teams that win Game 5 to take the lead are 211-58 (78.4 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series. Game 6 will be in Edmonton, the West hub city, on Friday (9:45 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, FS-SW).

Ryan O'Reilly and Brayden Schenn scored, and Jake Allen made 26 saves for St. Louis, the defending Stanley Cup champions and No. 4 seed in the West.

"[We] fell asleep there for whatever, 10-15 minutes of that (second) period," Schenn said. "[We] quit moving our feet, quit playing hard in our D-zone and made some mistakes and before you know it, it's 4-3."

WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Blues Game 5 highlights]

Motte's second goal off a turnover gave Vancouver a 4-3 lead at 18:17 of the second after Virtanen tied it 3-3 at 16:08.

Miller got the Canucks within 3-2 at 11:54.

Zach Sanford scored a power-play goal with a wrist shot at 5:51 of the second to give the Blues a 3-1 lead.

"My mindset stayed the same, keep the puck out of the net," Markstrom said. "When you're down 3-1, it's not ideal. Having let three goals in is nothing I would like to do, but for us to come back after that in the second period is huge."

Markstrom made 17 saves in the second period, including a point-blank chance from Robert Thomas at 8:37 to keep the score 3-1.

"I thought that save was big," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "You could feel it even on the bench. Every once in a while, there's a save where on the bench someone will say, 'that's the one we need,' and that was one of those moments where you know you got a big save. That might have been the one that kept you in the game, and you've got to push."

O'Reilly scored on a wraparound that went off Jordie Benn's stick to make it 2-1 with 29 seconds left in the first period. It was his fourth goal in four games.

Schenn entered the zone following a line change and tied it 1-1 at 15:41 of the first with a shot from the slot.

Motte scored shorthanded to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 13:15 of the first after Alex Pietrangelo's stick broke on a one-timer attempt.

"Kind of a lucky break, I guess, with him breaking his stick up top," Motte said. "I missed a clearing attempt off the face-off early, so it was nice to get an opportunity up the ice. [Pietrangelo] caught up to me pretty quick. I just tried to make a move and get the puck off on net. It happened to go in."

The Blues nearly tied the game in the final seconds, but a video review confirmed the puck crossed the goal line after time expired.

"You've got to play for 60 minutes, and we didn't do that tonight and we lost the game because of it," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said.

The Blues lost Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Dallas Stars last season and trailed that best-of-7 series 3-2 before they won the next two games.

"I think we've just got to use our experience from last year," Blues forward Jaden Schwartz said. "We've been in this position. … Today is frustrating, but we've got a resilient group and guys have been here before, so we'll be ready for that next game. That's all we're worried about."

Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler left the game with 1:29 remaining in the second period after his face was cut by the skate of Blues forward Jordan Kyrou. There was no update after the game.

NOTES: Blues forward Ivan Barbashev played his first game of the series after leaving the bubble two weeks ago to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. … The Canucks won a game when trailing by multiple goals for the second time this postseason (Game 4 of Stanley Cup Qualifiers, a 5-4 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild). It's the first time they have had more than one multigoal comeback wins in a single postseason.

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report