Photo by: (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
After giving up a 3-0 lead, the St. Louis Blues held on for a 4-3 victory in a shootout against the Ottawa Senators.
Jaden Schwartz amounted three points while Jake Allen turned aside 40 shots en route to the win.
Following the victory, the Blues improve to 37-20-9 with 83 points putting them in a three-way tie with the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Central Division.
The Blues get a nice five-day break until they face off against the Minnesota Wild on the road Sunday, Feb. 6.
St. Louis dominated in the first period as Schwartz took a shot on net with over 16 minutes left in the period. Craig Anderson made the first stop, but Dmitrij Jaskin was there in front to stuff it home making it 1-0.
Later in the period, Schwartz was on the other end of a Blues’ goal.
With the Blues on the power play, Kevin Shattenkirk took a shot from the point. Again, Anderson made the first stop, but Schwartz was there to put it past the blocker of Anderson making it 2-0 St. Louis with 7:07 left in the period.
The Blues continued with their momentum on the power play midway through the second period. Schwartz cycled the puck to the point to Shattenkirk who immediately sent it down low. Vladamir Tarasenko collected the pass before curling to the high circle and ripping a shot of the crossbar for the goal. The tally marked the 30th goal of the season for Tarasenko making it two straight seasons with at least 30 goals.
But from that point on, the game was all Sens as Anderson was replaced by Andrew Hammond in net.
About two minutes later, newly acquired Dion Phaneuf took a shot high on Allen. The puck fluttered past Allen as Ryan Dzingel put it home cutting the deficit to two.
In the third period, the Senators kept up their momentum.
The Blues kept their lead until the final minutes of regulation. Mark Stone slammed the puck off the end boards where Jean-Gabriel Pageau picked up the puck and snuck it into the back of the net past Allen cutting the game to 3-2 with 2:41 left in regulation.
In one final gasp, the Senators knotted the game as Pageau netted his second in under three minutes as he put home a rebound with under one second left in the game.
The goal earned both teams a point as the game stayed tied throughout overtime.
Patrick Berglund salvaged the two points with a shootout goal to break the tie in the 11th round.
The Blues get a nice five-day break until they face off against the Minnesota Wild on the road Sunday, Feb. 6.
