ST. LOUIS _ In a fast-paced, high-stakes, no-holds-barred battle on Saturday night at Enterprise Center that oozed drama, the Blues held on to an early three-goal lead thanks to a replay review that wiped out an apparent game-tying goal in the third period and knocked off Tampa Bay, the best team in the NHL, 4-3.
The Blues took a 4-2 lead into the third period after a spectacular goal by Brayden Schenn, shooting backhanded between his legs late in the second. Tampa Bay pulled within a goal 4:46 into the third when Steven Stamkos got the puck in the slot and shot past Jordan Binnington into the top corner.
It looked like Tampa Bay had tied the game with 5:43 to play on a shot by Stamkos on a power play, but the Blues challenged that Tampa Bay was offside entering the zone and, on review, the goal was disallowed. Ivan Barbashev got his stick on the puck as Brayden Point passed it into the zone and, by a hair's breadth, Point got into the zone before the puck did. The Blues killed the rest of that penalty on David Perron and held on to their lead.
Never sleep on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The NHL's best team came into the second period down three goals and having to kill a Blues power play. A short-handed goal, then another goal got the Lightning within a goal before a spectacular goal by Schenn gave the Blues some breathing room and a 4-2 lead on Tampa Bay after two periods on Saturday night at Enterprise Center.
Schenn's goal came after a dogged effort by Ivan Barbashev to win the puck back in the Tampa zone. He got the puck to Vladimir Tarasenko, whose shot was blocked by Andrei Vasilevskiy, but Schenn got the rebound and, skating across the crease and away from the goal, put a backhand shot between his legs and over the prone Vasilevskiy and into the goal
Other than that, though, the second period belonged to Tampa Bay, which outshot the Blues 19-8 and had two shots by Nikita Kucherov that could have tied the game go off the post. It was that close.
Tampa got its first goal by Alex Killorn with the Blues on a power play 27 seconds into the period. Point made it 3-2 with his 40th goal of the season after Ryan McDonagh gloved a puck out of the air and started a rush the other way.
Results around the league have been good for the Blues so far. Winnipeg beat Nashville 5-0, so the Blues could pull within two points of second place with a win. Minnesota, one of the teams chasing the Blues, lost to Carolina 5-1. Dallas is tied with Pittsburgh 2-2 after two periods.
The Blues had taken a 3-0 lead in a jaw-dropping 75 seconds that had the crowd going nuts at Enterprise Center in the first period.
Robert Thomas started the scoring with 8:30 to go in the first, shooting into an open half of the net on a power play after shots by Tyler Bozak and Vince Dunn. It was the eighth goal of the season for Thomas.
The crowd was still buzzing when Zach Sanford picked up the puck in the Tampa zone, took a shot that was blocked but Alexander Steen came in and, knocked off his feet a la Bobby Orr, put in the rebound to make it 2-0 just 38 seconds later. It was the eighth goal of the season for Steen.
That really got the crowd going, and then 37 seconds after that, Tarasenko scored his 29th goal of the season. Ryan O'Reilly skated the puck in and fed a trailing Tarasenko for the goal. It was Tarasenko's first goal since he came back from his injury and the first point for that line as well.
Binnington made some clutch saves in close on the Lightning and made 12 in all. He made two saves in quick succession shortly before the power play that got the Blues' scoring started.
