ST. LOUIS _ With a burst of speed through the neutral zone, Vladimir Taraskeno's goal with just 35.2 seconds left in overtime gave the Blues a 3-2 victory over Buffalo on Sunday before 17,310 at Scottrade Center.
Playing their third game in four nights, the Blues won their fourth in a row, improving to 21-8-2 on the season. Buffalo fell to 7-18-5. It was Tarasenko's 14th goal of the season and only his second since he scored twice on Nov. 21 against Edmonton.
For the third game in a row and eighth time this season, goalie Jake Allen took a shutout into the third period. But Buffalo's Evan Rodrigues made things interesting, cutting the St. Louis lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 1:42 of the third period.
The Blues had some excellent chances in the period, including two by Paul Stastny and a breakaway attempt by Alexander Steen. Allen made the puck disappear at the 13:06 mark, lying flat on his back to smother a rebound attempt by Sam Reinhart.
But Rodriques tied it at 2 with his second goal of the night with just 1:27 left to play, on a rebound shot into an open net to the right of Allen.
Stastny's first goal in seven games _ his seventh of the season _ gave the Blues a 2-0 lead late in the second period. Stastny poked in a rebound of a shot from Tarasenko in the slot, beating Buffalo goalie Robin Lehner in tight to his glove side.
The Blues successfully killed off two penalties. Then again, the Sabres are 30th in the NHL in power-play efficiency at 12 percent entering the night. Other than Stastny's goal, the highlight of the period was a sequence where Brayden Schenn came to Alexander Steen's defense after Justin Falk planted Steen into the boards.
Strangely, Schenn got a double-minor for roughing _ Falk got only two minutes _ even though Falk ended up throwing punches at Schenn and getting him down on the ice.
Sunday marked Schenn's first game of the season not on a line with Jaden Schwartz, who is out for at least six weeks with a foot injury. It didn't seem to matter at the start against Buffalo.
Schenn was in the right place at the right time to bang home a rebound of a Joel Edmundson shot past Sabres goalie Robin Lehner and into a wide-open net. It was Schenn's sixth goal in four games and his team-leading 16th of the season.
It took just 40 seconds for Schenn to get the Blues on top, their second-fastest goal of the season. (Carl Gunnarsson scored just 15 seconds into the New York Rangers game on Oct. 10.)
The Blues, who had only nine shots through two periods Saturday in Detroit, outshot the Sabres 16-7 in the period.
