DENVER _ Colton Parayko made an end-to-end run with the puck in overtime and used one hand to swipe the puck past goalie Semyon Varlamov as the Blues got their first OT win of the season, beating the Avalanche, 3-2, at Pepsi Center on Friday night.
By the end of the game, the Blues were missing Alex Pietrangelo, who left in the third period, and Alexander Steen, who left early in the second, but they managed to get a badly needed win, their first in overtime this season and their first by one goal. The Blues now head to Arizona for a game on Saturday.
It was the fourth goal of the season for Parayko. Goalie Jake Allen saved 27 of 29 shots he faced, including two breakaway saves, but didn't have to stop any in overtime as the Blues had the puck for most of the 94 seconds of extra time, during which the Blues used two defensemen and one forward most of the time. Parayko took the puck in his own end, skated into the Colorado zone, managed to get around the Avalanche's Samuel Girard and then as the puck slid toward Varlamov, got his stick on it.
The Blues took the lead on an early goal by Vladimir Tarasenko, his third in as many games after going 10 without one. Joel Edmundson was just out of the penalty box after the Blues had killed a slashing penalty and he had the primary assist on Tarasenko's ninth goal of the season.
The Blues also ran their power-play streak to three games with a goal by Steen, who scored with 11 seconds left in the power play and 31 seconds to go in the period. Steen stole a clearance attempt and scored to make it 2-0.
Colorado got a goal back 1:08 into the period on a careless turnover by David Perron, who made a pass straight to Colorado's Nikita Zadorov, who came in alone on Jake Allen and scored.
Not long after, the Blues had an extended power play they couldn't take advantage of. After Steen had knocked Nathan MacKinnon down with a check, Erik Johnson took a run at Steen and hit in the head with his right elbow. Johnson got a five-minute elbowing major and a game misconduct for a hit to the head. Steen, who was in his second game back after missing six with an upper body injury that could have been to his head, had to leave the ice to go through the concussion protocol and missed the remainder of the game with an upper-body injury.
It turned out to be a three-minute power play because of a roughing penalty on Edmundson in the ensuing scrum, but the Blues had nothing to show for it.
The Blues had another scoring chance when Oskar Sundqvist got a penalty shot when Patrik Nemeth slashed him as he drove to the goal. But Sundqvist tried the same move he had tried on his way to the net the first time and he lost the puck on the way in and never got the shot off.
Meanwhile, Colorado, with the best power play in the league, had two power plays in the first two periods but couldn't score on either, but they had one early in the third after an interference call on Perron. Edmundson cleared a puck that had gotten past Allen and was about to go in, but his desperate clearance hit Allen and bounced to Mikko Rantanen, who scored to tie the game 2:13 into the period.
