DALLAS _ With a power play coming in 3-on-3 overtime, the Blues' David Perron rendered it moot.
A delayed penalty was about to be called on Dallas when Perron scored his eighth goal of the season on a backhanded wraparound, clinching a 3-2 victory over the Stars.
The Blues improved to 5-9-1 on the road with the victory at American Airlines Center, which came without captain Alex Pietrangelo, who missed the game due to an illness.
The Blues were once again held without a goal in the third period. In their last six losses, they had been outscored by a combined score of 12-0 in the third period and overtime. But with 3 minutes, 5 seconds left in OT Tuesday, they scored on just their 22nd shot of the game.
Dallas outshot the Blues 38-22, but goalie Jake Allen, after sitting out Monday's loss to Edmonton, made 36 saves to post his 16th win of the season. It was only his fifth on the road.
The Blues will stay on the road, wrapping up their pre-Christmas schedule with a game in Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Midway through the game, the Blues were on pace to finish with a season low in shots, which went back to the third game of the season when they registered just 18 against the New York Rangers.
They had just one in the first 12 minutes of the second period, being tripled in shots by Dallas 25-8, but were somehow still involved in a 1-1 game.
Both goals came in the first period with the Stars picking up their goal from Patrick Eaves on the power play and the Blues getting theirs from Jaden Schwartz at even strength.
Vladimir Tarasenko put the Blues down a man for four minutes when he took a double-minor penalty for high-sticking Dallas' Jiri Hudler, drawing blood.
The NHL's No. 2-ranked penalty-killing unit erased the first two minutes of the man-advantage, but with Tarasenko still watching from the penalty box, Eaves netted his 12th of the season just 7:04 into the period.
Allen had been looking to build some confidence after sitting out Monday's game against Edmonton and this goal wasn't a good start. Eaves came down Allen's left side and squeezed a shot through the netminder's left arm.
The Blues trailed 1-0, but not for long, as Schwartz answered with No. 12 this season just 4:11 later.
The team made a change at forward Tuesday, subbing Dmitrij Jaskin in for Nail Yakupov on the top line and Jaskin helped set up the game-tying goal. His pass went to Paul Stastny, whose shot ricocheted off Dallas defenseman Johnny Oduya and caromed to Schwartz for his first goal in six games.
The Blues were knotted at 1-1 at the first intermission, but outshot 14-7 by Dallas in the first period and that trend would continue in the second.
The Stars had two 2-on-1 breaks in the opening minutes of the middle period, but Allen stood his ground on both. He also helped erase the Blues' eighth too-many-men penalty of the season.
The club finally earned its first power play of the game with 7:38 left in the second period. It was just the second man-advantage earned by the team in 2{ games, but the Blues couldn't do anything with it, posting just one shot. In fact, the shorthanded Stars had the best scoring chance, but Allen did his best imitation of a snow angel, keeping the puck out with 6:05 left in the period.
But Dallas did finally get the go-ahead goal in the closing minutes of the second period. Allen got a piece of a shot by Hudler, but Jason Spezza was on the doorstep for the rebound, scoring his sixth goal of the season with 1:24 left in the period.
The Blues had been turning up the heat prior to Spezza's goal. They had just one shot on goal from Perron in the opening 12:19 of the second period, but managed eight in the final 7:41.
So perhaps they were finally rewarded when Patrik Berglund scored with 31 seconds to play before the second intermission, sending the teams into the locker room tied at 2-2.
Berglund took a pass from Jay Bouwmeester in the slot and lifted a backhander over Antti Niemi. Berglund's fifth goal of the season was his fourth in the last four games, after netting just one in the first 30 games.
