David Perron scored eight seconds after the opening faceoff of overtime, lifting the St. Louis Blues to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.
Perron's second overtime winner in the past three games gave the Blues their fifth victory in the past six games.
The Blue Jackets are winless (0-2-1) in their past three games.
With the Blues opening overtime on a power play, Ryan O'Reilly won the faceoff and got the puck to Alex Pietrangelo, who skated with the puck into the Columbus zone. Pietrangelo sent a cross-ice pass to Perron, who fired in a shot from the right circle just as the power play expired.
Brayden Schenn, Oskar Sundqvist and Robert Thomas also scored for the Blues, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force overtime. Schenn has 10 goals in 14 games this season after failing to score his 10th goal until Feb. 7 last season.
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 27 of 30 shots in his sixth consecutive start.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano scored for the Blue Jackets. Rookie goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made 23 saves in the third start of his NHL career.
The Blues struck first when Thomas broke to the net and converted Tyler Bozak's spinning setup with just under six minutes left in the first period.
The Blue Jackets countered with their reconfigured No. 1 scoring line. Dubois deflected Gustav Nyquist's lead pass past Binnington to tie the game with just six seconds left in the opening period.
The Blue Jackets took a 3-1 lead in the second period. First Milano converted a weakside rebound from a tough angle at 5:41, then Bjorkstrand fired home a power-play goal from the left circle about five minutes later.
The Blues scored twice within 26 seconds in the second period to tie the game 3-3.
Schenn scored from the high slot off a power-play rush at 12:07. With the teams back at even strength, Sundqvist scored a second-effort goal from point-blank range, trying again after his first shot was blocked.
--Field Level Media
Columbus | St. Louis | |
Oliver Bjorkstrand 2 | Points | David Perron 2 |
Oliver Bjorkstrand 1 | Goals | David Perron 1 |
Oliver Bjorkstrand 1 | Assists | David Perron 1 |
Oliver Bjorkstrand 1 | Power Play Goals | David Perron 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Elvis Merzlikins .852 | Save Percentage | Jordan Binnington .900 |
Elvis Merzlikins 23 | Saves | Jordan Binnington 27 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Columbus | 30 | 3 | 1-3 | 2-4 | 8 | 31 |
St. Louis | 27 | 4 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 6 | 26 |