Ben Bishop opens the door, then shuts it again for Dallas

Whatever optimism was left inside the Enterprise Center on Friday night in Game 5 was quickly fizzling by the time Alex Pietrangelo stuck a long shot from inside his half of center onto Ben Bishop for the goaltender to control for the Dallas Stars.

But when Bishop decided to turn the opportunity to play the puck into a game of chicken with speedy winger Robert Thomas, he invited the St. Louis Blues back into a game in which they couldn’t otherwise find traction.

It was Jaden Schwartz hopping on the embarrassing miscue from Bishop and pumping it into the back of the net to pull the Blues within one with more than 11 minutes to work with to try to force overtime.

It was the goal the Blues needed to uncover life, as they surged down the stretch. But as much as Bishop was responsible for opening the door, he was there to close it as well.

Bishop finished with 38 saves, including this pad stop at full stretch in the final few minutes on Oskar Sundqvist to preserve the 2-1 win for Dallas, and a 3-2 series lead.

Just making things interesting. We see you, Ben.

More NHL coverage on Yahoo Sports