ST. LOUIS _ The Tampa Bay Lightning didn't give St. Louisan Ben Bishop the start in his return home Thursday night, but the Blues made sure he got some time in the net.
But after welcoming Bishop into the game, Vladimir Tarasenko tagged him for a hat-trick goal, momentarily relieving the tension after the Blues nearly let another lead slip away on this home stand.
The crowd of 17,351 began chanting "Tarasenko" after he scored his third of the game, regaining the Blues' two-goal advantage. But Tampa Bay would not go away Thursday, trimming it to one again before the final horn mercifully sounded.
In fact, when the horn did eventually sound and the Blues left the ice, referees called a penalty, putting Tampa Bay on a six-on-four power play with 2.2 seconds left. But after giving up goals to its two previous opponents in this situation and needing overtime to win, the club held on for a 5-4 victory.
The Blues won for the seventh time in their last eight games, earning their sixth win in a row at home, where they also now have a point in 10 straight. Their five-game home stand will continue Saturday with Winnipeg coming to town, followed by Montreal on Tuesday.
Those opponents will face a Blues offense that has registered four-plus goals in three straight games and hit the three-goal plateau in nine in a row. And they will be meeting a goalie in Jake Allen, who made 24 saves for his seventh straight victory and one that improved his record on home ice to 9-0-2 this season.
The Blues sent another visitor away with a loss Thursday, as Tampa Bay dropped a fourth straight game, falling to 3-5 since losing Steven Stamkos to a knee injury.
The Lightning have struggled defensively lately, coming into the game having been outscored 14-6 in three straight losses and the Blues added to those totals. They did it with three goals in the first period, marking the first time that's happened this season.
Tarasenko netted the first two in the opening 9 minutes, 37 seconds of the game, and with his third reached 13 for the season, tied for second among the NHL leaders.
It took Tarasenko just 1:39 to pick up his first of the night, a sequence that started with the right winger working hard on the forecheck against Tampa Bay's Andrej Sustr. Seconds later, as the Lightning were attempting to clear their zone, Colton Parayko stepped up and squeezed the puck lose. Tarasenko grabbed a hold of it, sliced to the net from a side angle and ripped a shot past Vasilevskiy.
The Blues' next three goals would come via the power play, and two of the man-advantage markers came compliments of a couple of penalties the Blues have patented this season _ delay of game and too many men on the ice.
Tampa Bay's Braydon Coburn took the delay of game, whacking the puck over the glass, and Tarasenko answered by whacking the puck in the net for his second of the night.
Alexander Steen, back in the lineup Thursday after missing six games with an upper-body injury, kept a clearing attempt in the zone and then fed the puck to Tarasenko, who already was dropping to a knee and winding up for the shot when the pass arrived. He blistered the back of the net for a 2-0 lead midway through the period.
About a minute later, Tampa cut into the Blues' lead 2-1 on the first of Cedric Paquette's two goals in the game, but before the first period ended, the Blues answered with another power-play goal.
Robby Fabbri initially got credit for deflecting a point shot by Kevin Shattenkirk, but the goal was later credited to Shattenkirk for the first of his two goals Thursday.
The first gave the Blues a 3-1 advantage, which they held at the first intermission and which Shattenkirk added to early in the second period with his second of the night.
This time, Tampa Bay went to the box for having too many men on the ice, and Shattenkirk scored on a point shot with David Perron screening in front. It was Shattenkirk's sixth goal of the season, five of which have come on the man-advantage.
That goal chased Vasilevskiy from the game, after allowing four goals on 16 shots. In came Bishop and that proved to change the momentum, as a 4-1 lead with 38 minutes left to play proved not to be enough.
Tyler Johnson scored his eighth of the season, taking advantage of a fumble by Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and putting a wrist shot through Alex Pietrangelo and Allen.
That cut the Blues' lead to 4-2 with 5:35 left in the second period, where the game stood at the second intermission.
At that point, the NHL's third-ranked penalty-killing unit had the night off, as the Blues were not whistled for a penalty through two periods. But less than two minutes into the third, Bouwmeester was called for hooking and the Lightning made them pay for their only infraction of the night with Nikita Kucherov accounting for the power-play goal, trimming it to 4-3.
Here we go again, right?
It seemed that way for about six minutes, until Tarasenko finalized the deal on his fourth-career hat trick, including one in the playoffs. His initial shot hit the post, but then ricocheted off the back of Bishop and into the net, for a goal that handed the Blues a 5-3 lead and led to dozens of hats hitting the ice.
Shattenkirk assisted for his fourth point of the night.
But after rink officials scooped up those lids, the Blues had some clean-up work left. Paquette notched his second of the game with 8:03 left, making the final minutes of Thursday's game more nerve-racking than anticipated. But somehow the Blues got through the final seconds unscathed.
