ST. LOUIS -- For the Blues, the final minutes of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Friday night had an uncomfortable similarity to the final minutes of Game 3. As the Sharks controlled play with their goalie pulled for an extra attacker, creating a parade of scoring chances, the Blues kept icing the puck as they clung to a one-goal lead.

"It's just madness. You hope for the best and try to close the door," St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington said.

But unlike Game 3, when Logan Couture tied the score with just over a minute remaining before the Sharks won in overtime, the Blues closed out Game 4 looking calm and collected, winning 2-1 to push the series back to San Jose knotted at 2-2.

It was an impressive showing, considering how the Blues had lost the previous game -- on a missed hand-pass by Timo Meier that set up Erik Karlsson's game-winning goal, an embarrassing blown call that the NHL has acknowledged its officials missed.

The Blues said their focus tracks back to their coach, Craig Berube, laying down the law after Game 3: There would be no complaining about the missed call, not even as fuel for the next game. Let it go. Move along. Don't even think about it.

"After the game, I just came in [the dressing room] and talked. We talked about how you just gotta move on. The call, you can't change it now. It is what it is," Berube said. "I think we talked in terms of having a one-goal lead in that game. We could have closed it out, and we didn't. We let it go to overtime. The difference tonight is that we closed it out."

Center Tyler Bozak said the speech helped the Blues put Game 3 behind them quickly.

"You got big games coming up and you sit there and dwell on something in the past, it's not going to do you any good," he said. "We fought through adversity all year and we usually play our best when we have to respond from something, and again, I thought we did a really good job tonight responding."

Something else that has happened all year when adversity strikes: Binnington carries the team. He is 11-2 after losses with a 1.81 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage.

"As soon as people start doubting him, he pulls another sick performance," winger David Perron said. "We maybe relied on him a little too much the last two periods. That's something we can look at, but right now we're happy with the win and the result."

The Sharks put 30 shots on Binnington but dominated at even strength in the game, with 65 shot attempts to 25 for the Blues. That included a third period that saw them with 14 shot attempts to just one for the Blues at 5-on-5.

But the Sharks said after the game that it's not about quantity, but quality. They didn't make the goalie work enough.

"He made some good saves. We had some good chances, and we can get a little better," said captain Joe Pavelski. "If we can get him moving a little bit, some of our opportunities [might go]. But he played well, gave up one goal, and we gave up two. What are you going to do about it?"

With the win, Binnington set a franchise record for wins in a single postseason with 10 and became just the 10th rookie goalie in NHL history to reach double digits in playoff wins during a postseason year.

"That's a great honor, obviously," Binnington said. "I'm having a lot of fun back here playing with this team, and they're doing a great job. They limited chances tonight. I think we played a complete game, so I just try to do my job."

KOSICE, Slovakia -- Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist to help the United States rout Denmark 7-1 on Saturday for the Americans' fourth straight victory during preliminary play at the world championships.

Jeff Blashill became the winningest U.S. coach in world championship history in the top division with his 18th career victory in 23 games.

Patrick Kane added three assists; Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist; and Frank Vatrano, Clayton Keller, Chris Kreider and Dylan Larkin scored a goal apiece. Goalie Cory Schneider made 21 saves for his third victory this tournament.

"Schneids made a couple of big saves early, and I thought overall we got better as the game went on and picked up an important three points," said Blashill, also the coach of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings. "We can still tighten up a little defensively, but overall I thought we made some good strides today."

The U.S. is 3-1-0-1 in Group A and plays Germany on Sunday, when Minnesota Wild forward Luke Kunin is to join the team.

Russia beat Latvia 3-1 in Bratislava and leads Group B with a 5-0-0-0 record. Canada beat Germany 8-1 for its fourth straight win, and Norway beat Italy 7-1. In late games, Sweden edged Switzerland 4-3, and Slovakia scored three goals in the first 11 minutes in beating Britain 7-1.

The Americans improved to 6-0-1-1 against Denmark, jumping to a 4-0 lead after the first period.

Vatrano scored the first goal off a breakaway with Derek Ryan. DeBrincat scored 29 seconds later on a power play, putting the puck under goalie Simon Nielsen's glove. Keller made it 3-0 when James van Riemsdyk deflected a shot by Ryan Suter off Keller's back. Kreider made it 4-0 late in the first.

Nick Olesen scored at 4:50 of the second to pull Denmark within 4-1. DeBrincat padded the lead at 11:55 with tap-in goal, and Larkin made it 6-1 at 13:17. Eichel scored his first goal of this tournament at 11:19 of the third for the final score.

Mark Stone scored three of Canada's first four goals, Anthony Matha added two and Dylan Strome and Jonathan Marchessault each had three assists. Canada is tied with Germany for second in Group A behind Finland (13) with 12 points apiece. The U.S. is fourth with 11 points.

Norway avoided relegation with a second win in as many days with Mathias Trettenes' goal 1:47 into the third the winner.

Italy ended a scoring drought of 447 minutes, 42 seconds at the worlds dating to 2017 when Angelo Miceli scored at 2:03 of the third off a shot by Armin Helfer. The goal was reviewed for a possible kicking motion after going of Miceli's skate only to be upheld to pull Italy within 2-1. Norway answered with five straight goals.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored at 11:47 of the third to lift Sweden to the win just 1:20 after Switzerland had tied it at 3 on a goal by Gaetan Haas.

BOSTON -- The Bruins were able to sweep Carolina in the Eastern Conference final without captain Zdeno Chara.

Now they're hoping 10 days off before the start of the Stanley Cup Final will be enough time for the defenseman to return.

The title round begins May 27 when Boston will face San Jose or St. Louis, with that conference final 2-2. The Bruins completed their sweep Thursday with Chara out with an undisclosed injury.

"We have a lot of time to make the absolute right decision to give him the proper time to get over something that's been nagging him," Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Saturday. "And we'll cross our fingers that will be the case. But we're confident it will be."

Sweeney stopped short of guaranteeing Chara's return for Game 1.

"I'm not living in how or where Zee feels. I expect he'll be fine," Sweeney said. "But I'm not going to sit here and make a proclamation in terms of promises. I do believe that time will be used effectively and he'll be fine. But sometimes those are out of your control."

Defenseman Kevan Miller and forward Chris Wagner are doubtful for Game 1 of the Final. Miller hasn't played since April 4 because of a lower-body injury. Wagner injured his right arm blocking a shot in Game 3 against Carolina.

Hey, good news: We're going to talk more about the players than the referees in this edition, which is really all we can ask for in this postseason. It was a 2-1 win for the St. Louis Blues over the San Jose Sharks, without any major controversy!

Here's what happened in the NHL last night (check out replays of every playoff game on ESPN+) and what to watch for Sunday night, in today's edition of ESPN Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily:

Jump ahead: Last night's game | Three stars
Play of the night | Next game | Social post of the day

About last night ...

Game 4: St. Louis Blues 2, San Jose Sharks 1 (series tied 2-2)

The Blues had two options after that crushing Game 3 overtime loss. They could have allowed the blown call on Timo Meier's hand pass that set up Erik Karlsson's game winner to fester. Or, they could put it aside and focus on the real lesson of that loss, which is to not allow a game-tying goal late in the game.

They went for the second route in Game 4, closing out the 2-1 win thanks to a strong performance from Jordan Binnington (moving to 11-2 after losses) and a defense that bent (allowing 73 shot attempts in all situations) but did not break. (Here's a quirk: For the fourth time in this series, the team with the most shot attempts was the team that lost the game.) Ivan Barbashev and Tyler Bozak had the Blues' goals, and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks.

Three stars

1. Jordan Binnington, G, St. Louis Blues. The Blues rookie set a franchise record with his 10th playoff win, and became just the 10th rookie goalie in NHL history to hit double-digits in wins during a single postseason. He made 29 stops for St. Louis.

2. Martin Jones, G, San Jose Sharks. Jones made only 20 saves in the game and ultimately took the loss, but he was spectacular for the Sharks early in the game before they started controlling play from the second period on. "We were kind of lucky it was just 2-0 after first. Jonesy made a couple huge saves," Tomas Hertl said.

3. Ivan Barbashev, LW, St. Louis Blues. The Blues' fourth line had another strong game, and Barbashev followed up his assist on Alexander Steen's Game 3 goal with a goal of his own just 35 seconds into Game 4, setting the tempo.

Play of the night

.@StLouisBlues>#StanleyCup>pic.twitter.com/WaXKmh1N9n - NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) May 18, 2019

Follow the bouncing puck. Tyler Bozak was credited with the goal, as it hit a few skates and found its way past Jones.

Dud of the night

We need to talk about Erik Karlsson.

The Sharks defenseman played just 6:20 in the third period, his lowest ice time for any period of this series. His 25:09 in total ice time, while second only to Brent Burns (26:46) on the Sharks, was also his lowest of the series. He was missing from the ice for almost eight minutes of the third period, before he took the ice with 1:55 left and the Sharks having pulled Jones. Karlsson's skating was labored. He didn't rush the puck much at all. Burns passed on a question about Karlsson's health, and coach Peter DeBoer said he had "nothing" to add to the speculation about the defenseman's health. It's something to monitor before Game 5.

On the schedule

St. Louis Blues at San Jose Sharks, Game 5, 3 p.m. ET Sunday (series tied 2-2)

The noon local start time is an interesting wrinkle for Game 5. The Sharks will seek to extend one of the most cemented trends of the postseason, which is their record in odd and even games. They're now 1-7 in even-numbered games with a minus-10 goal differential, and 9-1 in odd-numbered games with a plus-15. It should also be interesting to see if DeBoer does some line scrambling, as he had Joe Pavelski skating with Joe Thornton, and Joonas Donskoi with Hertl's line for a bit in Game 4.

Social post of the day

Hypnotizing. #StanleyCup>pic.twitter.com/0GiuHFNRwM - NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) May 17, 2019

Honestly, who needs teammates when you have a hallway for fun?

Quotable

"It was exactly the opposite of what we wanted. ... The first was really ugly." -- Tomas Hertl on the Sharks' start

New Zealand-born forward Tyler Boyd has been approved to switch affiliation to the United States by FIFA.

Boyd, 24, scored five goals and had four assists in 13 games for Ankaragucu, in Turkey's top division, in the second half of the season on loan from Portugal's Vitoria Guimaraes.

- Davis: Lletget is the most interesting man in U.S. soccer

Boyd played for New Zealand at the 2013 Under-20 World Cup and made his debut for the senior national team in Japan in 2014. He has played six international matches, all exhibitions.

The U.S. Soccer Federation announced on Saturday that soccer's international governing body had approved Boyd's application.

LONDON, England -- Pep Guardiola believes that Manchester City's domestic Treble was harder to achieve than winning the Champions League.

City wrapped up the final part of the Treble on Saturday with an emphatic 6-0 victory over Watford, just six days after pipping Liverpool to the Premier League title by a single point.

"It's one of the best seasons I've experienced as a manager, not the best but one of the best for sure," Guardiola said at a news conference. "To be for 10 months playing in all competitions. No team, including incredible teams in this country, have done this and we were the first.

"I love the Champions League, but to do [the Treble] is more difficult than to win the Champions League and we did it.

"It's not easy for 10 months, every three days being there because when you have one bad night you are out of competitions. And especially the way we played today we were a little bit short of energy but that's normal."

City were ruthless against Watford as they equalled the record FA Cup final winning margin set by Bury more than a century ago in 1903.

- Ogden and Smith: How Pep & Co. won a remarkable Treble
- Man City ratings: Sterling 10/10, Jesus 9/10 in FA Cup rout

Raheem Sterling scored twice and looked to have become the first player to score a hat trick in a final since 1953. But City's second from Gabriel Jesus crossed the line just millimetres before Sterling could claim the goal, although it wasn't officially given to the Brazilian until more than 30 minutes after full-time.

"I've disputed it!" Sterling said. "What can we do?

"The boys were brilliant today and my goals just added to the win. Everyone was fantastic.

"Credit to all the boys today. It's been a fantastic year."

Sterling, whose boyhood home was in view of the Wembley Arch, added: "Growing up here, growing up seeing this get built, it's a dream to be on this football field and winning trophies. It's a massive dream come true."

Teammate Bernardo Silva said that there will be no let-up next season and warned City's rivals that they can get even better.

"There's always space for improvement, and that's what we will try to do," he said.

"Next season we'll try to get better and we'll try to win even more titles, to be even better, to control more of the games, to have more possession, to create more chances to score more goals. We'll work on that.

"To win all the massive competitions, first time any team has done it, it's amazing, what a team this is. The fans were amazing this season as well, they pushed us this far.

"Now it's time to rest and time to celebrate. Next season we will try again."

San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski has broken Landon Donovan's all-time Major League Soccer goals record with the first two of four strikes against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

Wondolowski, 36, is now on 148 goals in 338 MLS appearances, while Donovan took 340 games to reach the previous record of 145.

His first goal goal came in the 21st minute when Cristian Espinoza delivered a long, cross-field pass to Shea Salinas on the left wing, and Salinas' low, driven cross was stabbed home by Wondolowski at the far post.

And Wondolowski set a new mark on 48 minutes when a seemingly innocuous cross from Nick Lima was floated into the box, but when Fire goalkeeper David Ousted fumbled the delivery, Wondolowski was there to pounce and side-foot it in.

He then added additional strikes in the 74th and 76th minutes to round out his historic afternoon.

Wondolowski started his career with the Earthquakes in 2005, but scored his first four goals for the Houston Dynamo, where he played from 2006-2009 after the franchise relocated.

MLS returned to San Jose in the 2009 season -- and so did Wondolowski, who had his breakout year in 2010, scoring 18 times in 28 appearances.

He had a record-tying year in 2012 when he scored 27 times to match Roy Lassiter's 1996 mark for most goals in a season. That mark was equaled by the New York Red Bulls' Bradley-Wright Phillips in 2014 before Atlanta's Josef Martinez surpassed the trio's mark in 2018.

Wondolowski also has 11 goals and 35 caps for the United States and was part of the squad that went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

Rounding out the top five leading scorers in MLS history after Wondolowski and Donovan are Jeff Cunningham with 134 goals, Jaime Moreno (133) and Ante Razov (114).