In St Louis, the visiting Arizona Coyotes scored three goals in the back half of the third period to tie their game with the Blues, 5-5.
Lawson Crouse scored with 57 seconds left in regulation to get the Coyotes even and force extra time.
In the extra session Ryan O’Reilly put home the game-winner with 62 seconds gone for the 6-5 decision..
Pavel Buchnevich set up the winner.
“A nice play by ‘Buchy,'” O’Reilly said. “I just kind of crisscrossed it with him and saw I had a little lane there, so I just kind of got my young legs going and made a little move and it got by [Coyotes goalie Karel Vejmelka].”
Jordan Binnington made 23 saves in the Blues win.
St Louis moved to 24-25-3.
“We weren’t playing very quick in the first period, a little methodical and slow,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “Better as it went along, better second, better third. The third goal is a tough one, then we took a penalty. Our penalty kill wasn’t sharp tonight I don’t think. We shouldn’t have given up either goal. The tying goal, 6-on-5, we just didn’t return hard enough to the middle of the ice.
“I liked a lot of things in the game, especially the second and the third. I thought we did some real good things offensively, and I liked our forecheck a lot tonight.”
Sammy Blais scored for St Louis in his return to the Blues after a trade from the New York Rangers.
“It felt really good,” Blais said. “My first goal of the season, obviously. Coming back to St. Louis and scoring in my first game, I couldn’t have asked for better than that.
“I can’t even describe it. It was just a nice pass by Leddy. Just happy I got this one out of the way, and I’ll just keep moving forward.”
Clayton Keller and Nick Bjugstad also scored for Arizona in the third period as part of the rally.
“We wanted to pressure them,” Keller said. “We know that was their first game after the [All-Star] break. We know it’s tough, the first one, so we wanted to get on them early. I thought we showed a lot of resiliency.”
Keller had two goals in the game, his first came with 51 seconds gone in the game for a 1-0 lead.
Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun was a late scratch for trade considerations.
“We have a job to do,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “‘Chych’ is a great guy, but there is a situation there that concerns him, our GM, our organization, obviously, and his agent. It’s their job to deal with it, not my job.”
Nick Schmaltz extended the lead to 2-0 in the first period.
The Coyotes dropped to 17-28-8.
“We came back strong in the third,” Tourigny said. “It was urgent. That’s the thing I had in mind. Everybody was focused on coming back in that game and playing well. Today was a good day.”
The Blues rallied in the middle frame on goals from Brandon Saad and Blais for a 2-2 tie.
Robert Thomas added a goal in the third for a 3-2 lead to the Blues, and Calle Rosen hit for a double and a 5-2 advantage before the Coyotes’ rally.
“I think we started playing the right way a bit more in the second period already,” Rosen said. “We felt good coming in the third, and I think we showed it the first 10 minutes at least.
“Definitely not the first period we wanted and second half of the third, not what we wanted, but it’s good to come out with two points, and that was the big part today.”
Karel Vejmelka made 31 saves in the Arizona loss.
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