ST. LOUIS _ At a point in the season when the Blues can't afford to lose too many more games, they also can't afford to lose any of their top players either.
The Blues pulled out a dramatic 4-3 overtime win over the Rangers on a goal by Brayden Schenn after playing the final two periods without leading goal scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, who suffered an upper-body injury. There was no word on what Tarasenko's situation is beyond Saturday's game. The Blues, who have 11 games left in the regular season, play again on Sunday at Chicago.
In the rarest of events for the Blues, they sent the game to overtime on a power-play goal, their first in seven games. In overtime, Schenn skated on to a pass, powered past Rangers defenseman John Gilmour and cut across the crease to score on Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
The desperately needed win puts the Blues three points out of the second wild-card spot with a chance to make it one with a win over Chicago.
Tarasenko did not play after the first period with what the team termed an upper-body injury. Tarasenko, who came into the game as one of three Blues to appear in every game this season, played 7 minutes, 52 seconds. But at the start of the second period, Dmitrij Jaskin joined Schenn and Jaden Schwartz for the opening faceoff and the Blues rotated a series of forwards through that spot the rest of the game.
Tarasenko took an elbow to the mouth on the first shift of the game from New York's Neal Pionk, and he skated away with his hand to his mouth, but he finished the period without missing a shift. Tarasenko leads the team in scoring with 27 goals and came into the game tied for the team lead in points (with Schenn) with 58. Though he has just one goal in his past seven games, the Blues' offense has regained some form since he was put back on a line with Schenn and Schwartz.
The Blues keep getting offense from weird places. Over the past three games, they had six of their eight goals from either defensemen or the fourth line.
The Blues gave themselves new life on Alex Pietrangelo's second goal of the game and the team's first power-play goal in March. With Paul Carey off for slashing, the Blues had 23 seconds to go in what looked like it would be another ineffective power play when Pietrangelo took a shot from the blueline that appeared to graze a Rangers stick on the way in and beat goalie Alexandar Georgiev to tie the game. It was the first shot on goal for the Blues on Saturday in almost six minutes with a man advantage.
The Blues got some good saves from Jake Allen to keep the game tied and went to overtime, where they lost two straight. Just before Schenn's goal, Allen made a save on the Rangers to keep the game alive.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Pietrangelo, the fourth straight game in which the Blues got their first goal of the game from a defenseman. At the end of a long Blues possession, Vladimir Sobotka threw the puck at the net, where it hit linemate Tage Thompson. The puck came loose to Pietrangelo, who swooped in to clean it up and put the Blues ahead.
The Blues had scored first in only three of their previous 11 games, but those were also the only games they won in that run. But after a dominating first period, in which they outshot the Rangers 16-2, they fell behind in the second period. The Rangers tied the game 52 seconds into the period when Jesper Fast threw a puck at the end that Mike Zibanejad deflected past Allen.
The Blues retook the lead when Nikita Soshnikov got his first goal with the Blues, flipping in a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 2-1. The Rangers tied the game when a two-on-three break turned into a two-on-one. Alexander Steen broke up Mats Zuccarello's cross-ice pass, but the puck came back to Zuccarello, who scored on a shot that Allen got a glove on but then bounced back into the net.
After Chris Thorburn took a tripping penalty, the Rangers scored a power-play goal by Zibanejad. Pavel Buchnevich and Chris Kreider played catch to Allen's left, before Kreider pulled off a sweet, no-look backhand pass across the crease to Zibanejad to put the Rangers ahead.
