ST. LOUIS _ Proving that hockey is a game of millimeters, the Blues turned their game Saturday with Dallas around on a successful offside challenge, and channeled that newfound momentum into a 3-2 win at Enterprise Center.
It looked like the Blues were down 3-1 2:23 into the third period on a power-play goal by Esa Lindell that went under Jordan Binnington's pads. But teammate Justin Dowling had been just over the line and in the Blues zone when Lindell took the puck in, and after a call from video coach Sean Ferrell and some more scrutinizing of the play on the bench, the Blues challenged, risking a two-minute penalty if they were wrong.
Dowling was offside, just barely, but that was enough and the goal was wiped out. The Blues killed the rest of the power play and 2:11 after the challenge, $52 million man Brayden Schenn took a pass from Vladimir Tarasenko, charged in on the net, took a shot that went over Dallas goalie Ben Bishop and into the net, possibly knocked in by Dallas' Radek Faksa amid a pile of bodies.
The Blues went ahead with 9:35 to play on a shot by Carl Gunnarsson that deflected off Samuel Blais and then off Dallas' Taylor Fedun and rolled under Bishop's pads.
The Blues got off to another fast start, scoring a goal just 81 seconds in to their game with Dallas, but another power-play misadventure and a return of their opening malaise left them down 2-1 after two periods.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen put the Stars ahead on a goal from a difficult angle down low with 6:48 to go in the second. The shot seemed to take everyone by surprise. It was quickly in and out of the net and everyone kept playing for a few seconds before the referee signaled a goal.
The Blues were outshot 10-3 in the second period, not unlike Wednesday's opener when they were outshot 15-8 by Washington in the second period, and 25-10 over the final two periods.
At the start, though, the Blues looked great again. Fifty-three seconds in to their season opener, David Perron fed Blais for a goal. This time, the roles were reversed, with Blais setting up Perron for a shot from the right circle.
The Blues had a power play midway through the period and midway through, Mattias Janmark of Dallas got the puck and had an open lane on his left and charged up ice with Vince Dunn racing back to cover. Janmark got off a shot that Binnington stopped, but he couldn't control the rebound. The puck rolled into the crease, and Binnington was about to cover it when Jaden Schwartz, looking to clear the puck, beat him to it and knocked it into his own net.
Schwartz looked less than pleased.
The Blues outshot Dallas 15-10 in the period and had 21 shot attempts to 16 for Dallas.
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