TORONTO _ It was as if Vladimir Tarasenko said, 'We're tired, let's get out of here."
Just 20 second into overtime against Toronto on Thursday night, Tarasenko picked up the puck at redline, skated around and between the Maple Leafs' Leo Komarov, Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly before putting a wrist shot past goalie Frederik Andersen for a 2-1 victory in OT.
Tarasenko's 26th goal of the season helped extend the Blues' winning streak to three games, their longest since November.
The Blues, who lost center Paul Stastny to an injury in the game, improved to 3-0 on their five-game road trip, which will continue Saturday in Montreal.
The club was playing its third game in four nights and fifth game in eight nights Thursday in Toronto, and appeared to be gasping for air as they finished the game with 11 forwards.
Tarasenko then put the Blues in celebration mode with his sixth goal in his last seven games. It came on the team's 40th shot of the game, tying their season-high, and made a winner out of goalie Jake Allen, who finished with 31 saves.
The Blues lost Stastny and their shutout streak in the second period _ one at the start and one at the end.
The team took a 1-0 lead into the period and Stastny won the opening faceoff against Kadri. But 10 second in, Stastny was chasing the puck into the offensive zone and got his right leg tangled up with Kadri, causing him to fall and glide toward the end boards.
Stastny seemingly would have made contact with Andersen, who was out of the crease, or the boards, but replays did not show what occurred behind the net.
Stastny skated off gingerly to the Blues' bench, where he slammed the door behind him and sat for several shifts. There was finally a stoppage with 13:01, allowing him to take a quick twirl and test the injury, and he followed that up by skating to the locker room.
The Blues later announced that Stastny was out for the remainder of the game with a lower-body injury, continuing a run of recent injuries.
As of Jan. 27, the Blues had just 69 man games lost, ranking 29th in the NHL. But after losing center Kyle Brodziak, he has been joined on the injury list by Robby Fabbri and now potentially Stastny too.
The Blues were going to be challenged condition-wise anyway Thursday. The team's latest injury added to the ice time of a couple of players and the fatigue.
Berglund, Jori Lehtera and Ivan Barbashev didn't get much rest in the second period, logging 8:03, 6:08 and 5:02, respectively, but the Blues managed to keep pace with the Maple Leafs.
As a matter of fact, although they didn't build on their one-goal advantage, they held Toronto without a shot on goal for a stretch off 10:27. The Leafs didn't have record an attempt from 12:57 left in the period until 2:30 remained.
But the Blues managed to undo that hard work by allowing another late-period goal. With 1:14 to go, Lehtera lost a faceoff to Komarov in the offensive zone. Rielly grabbed possession, exited the defensive zone and fed the puck ahead to Kadri. Kadri cut around Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson and put a shot on net that led to a juicy rebound, which Reilly cleaned up for his second goal of the season.
The goal that tied the score at 1, with 1:04 to play in the second ended the Blues' shutout streak that stretched seven-plus periods and covered 159:14.
The Blues had built 1-0 their lead in a first period that saw 17 shots on goal, a season-high for the team in an opening frame.
The goal belonged to Patrik Berglund, his 14th of the season, 13 of those in the last 25 games. It came just 4:15 into the game, when the center took a loose puck, pulled it to the top of the slot and ripped a shot past Andersen.
The Blues added 14 more shots in the second period for a two-period total of 31, but found themselves tied after the goal by Rielly.
The third period was scoreless, but the Blues had a chance to take a lead late in regulation. Alex Pietrangelo took a 'holding the stick' penalty with 9:50 to play, and when that expired, he came out of the box on a breakaway. But from 18 feet out, Pietrangelo shot high off the glass.
Toronto thought it had a goal with three seconds left, sending the game to OT, where Tarasenko won it for the Blues.
