-Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/NHLI via Getty Images
After a five game winning streak, the Blues added one more to that total after a comeback win against Tampa Bay.
Vladamir Tarasenko stretched the game to overtime with his 26th of the year, and Jaden Schwartz ended it in overtime to give the Blues the 2-1 overtime win.
St. Louis now has points in each of its past 12 games, which is a club record.
With the win, St. Louis improves to 33-13-4 and is now tied for the lead in the Central Division and lead in the Western Conference with 70 points.
The Blues started slow allowing 11 shots in the opening period of play and recorded just two in the offensive end.
Brian Elliott was sharp in net as he stopped all shots faced in the first period and 30 of 31 in the game. Elliott now has wins in each of his past five starts.
Despite a slow first period, the Blues recorded shots early in the second period by Jay Bouwmeester and T.J. Oshie and finished with 10 shots in the period.
However, the Tampa Bay Lightning struck first led my the red-hot Cedric Paquette. With 14:40 left to play in the second period, Jonathan Drouin and Alex Killorn assisted on the wrist shot by Paquette to beat Elliott and break the 0-0 tie. The goal was Paquette’s fifth in the past three games including a hat trick against Detroit.
Chris Butler who was on the ice for Paquette’s goal saw a jump in ice time due to the injury to Kevin Shattenkirk. Butler finished the game with 20:45 time on ice. The Blues were also without Jori Lehtera and Patrik Berglund in the game.
In the middle of the third period with the Blues down a man, Elliott made a post to post slide to turn aside the slap shot from Nikita Kucherov to keep the Blues within one.
Just minutes later, Drouin hoisted a pass up to the streaking Paquette who went across the goal mouth and tried to slide the puck past Elliott. Elliott sprawled out to make the first save and then stopped the second opportunity to keep it 1-0 Lightning with 7:32 remaining in regulation.
The first quality opportunity for St. Louis came late in the game from Tarasenko, who fired a wrist shot between the legs of a Lightning defenseman, but Ben Bishop made the glove save.
Tarasenko would get redemption minutes later off the face off as he went top shelf past Bishop off the face off win by Paul Stastny. The goal was 26th of the season to tie the game at 3:10 remaining in the third period.
The score remained tied after three periods of play.
In overtime, Schwartz split the defense and deked past Bishop for his 18th goal of the season to win the game for St. Louis.
St. Louis will take on the Buffalo Sabres on the road Thursday Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. CT.
