COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The Blues picked up where they left off before their nine-day break, being in control for much of the game against Columbus and beating the Blue Jackets 4-2 on Saturday in a game that got a little bit hairy in the final minutes when Columbus scored to get within one. Oskar Sundqvist got an empty net goal with 29.4 seconds left to seal the win.
The win improved the Blues record to 23-22-5, the first time in a while they're over .500.
"It's another check mark," coach Craig Berube said. "We've got to keep moving. We've got a game in Florida and they're fighitng for a playoff spot. We have to keep going in the right direction. It's a good hurdle to get over, but we have a lot of work ahead of us."
The Blues outshot Columbus 33-20 and had several odd-man rushes and good scoring opportunities that they couldn't finish. But they took a 2-0 lead after the first period and responded each time Columbus cut the margin to one.
After goals by Ryan O'Reilly and Carl Gunnarsson in the first period, Columbus cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand with 13:45 to go in the third. But 34 seconds later, Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a dive that poked in a rebound of a shot by O'Reilly to make it 3-1.
Columbus pulled its goalie and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored with 2:37 to play, but Sundqvist then got his 11th goal of the season into an empty net.
The Blues' first three goals all came from within a few feet.
"We talk about it a lot and work on it," Berube said. "That's kind of our game, getting in the offensive zone, shooting the puck, getting to the net and grinding it out. We ended up getting rewarded."
Jordan Binnington got the win, stopping 18 of the 20 shots he faced. "He gives us a chance to win," Berube said. "That's what he does."
The top line of O'Reilly, Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn was on the ice for the three even-strength goals. O'Reilly has a point in seven straight games and also had an assist, giving him 300 in his career and Gunnarsson has three goals in five games. Tarasenko had three points with a goal and two assists. Schenn had an assist, the 200th in his NHL career.
If there was concern about how the Blues would play coming off a nine-day break between games, it didn't last long. O'Reilly, the Blues' representative at the All-Star Game, scored with 11:32 to go in the first. Tarasenko won a puck deep in the Columbus zone, passed it out to Alex Pietrangelo at the point. His shot was blocked by goalie Joonas Korpisalo, but he couldn't control the rebound and O'Reilly tapped the puck into an open net for his team-high 19th goal.
Gunnarsson scored with 45 seconds to go in the first period. He fought for a puck behind the Columbus goal, with Tarasenko ultimately getting it and moving it Schenn, who passed it back to Gunnarsson, who had gone backdoor on Korpisalo and tipped it in.
"I thought we had good legs right away in the game," Berube said. "I didn't think our execution was great in the first period, but we got better as the game went along. We were pretty dialed in."
Alexander Steen left the bench in the third period when he was hit in the face by the stick of Pietrangelo while Steen was sitting on the bench. Berube said he thought Steen would be OK but he would be re-evaluated on Sunday.
Binnington made his eighth start in 11 games. He was 5-1-1 in his first seven starts, with a 1.57 goals-against average and a save percentage of .936. This is simply a case of Berube riding the hot hand.
