ST. LOUIS _ That's half a dozen. Six in a row for the St. Louis Blues, compliments of the Vladimirs. Vladimir Sobotka dug the puck out from behind the San Jose net, then fed Vladimir Tarasenko for the game-winning goal, giving the Blues a 3-2 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday before 18,947 at Scottrade Center.
It was Tarasenko's 31st goal of the season and his second of the game. He has scored in three consecutive games for the first time this season.
For the Blues, now 43-28-5 on the season, it was their sixth consecutive victory. With 91 points and six games to play, they moved ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche into the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
San Jose (44-24-9) entered the game with an eight-game winning streak. But the Blues, who ended Columbus' 10-game winning streak Saturday, won their fourth overtime game in their last five outings.
The teams exchanged power play goals in the second period, with Joe Paveleski's 20th goal of the season giving San Jose a 2-1 lead at the 7:07 mark with Joel Edmundson off for hooking.
The Blues countered with Tarasenko's 30th of the season at the 12:03 mark with the Sharks' Timo Meier in the box for tripping to send the game into the third period tied 2-2.
It marks the fourth consecutive season that Tarasenko has reached 30 goals, and the first time this season he has scored a goal in three consecutive games. Some nifty puck-handling by Brayden Schenn drew the defense towards him and gave Tarasenko room for his shot from the left faceoff circle.
Besides Schenn, Alex Pietrangelo also had an assist on the play, giving him 52 points on the season, the most for a Blues defenseman since Chris Pronger had 54 in the 2003-04 season.
It was nearly a full season in the making, but in his 37th game with the Blues Oskar Sundqvist finally scored a goal. It came at a good time for the Blues, too, tying Tuesday's contest with San Jose 1-1 in the first period at Scottrade Center.
Benefiting from the presence of Ivan Barbashev in front of San Jose goalie Aaron Dell, Sundqvist's shot found the net, high and to Dell's right, with two minutes 17 seconds left in the period.
San Jose came out strong, pressuring St. Louis from the opening faceoff. Evander Kane got the Sharks on the scoreboard just 6 { minutes into the proceedings when he took a drop pass Melker Karlsson and beat Jake Allen with a shot from just outside the right faceoff circle. It was Kane's ninth goal in 14 games since coming to San Jose in a trade deadline deal from Buffalo.
