Blues rally past Blue Jackets in OT for third win in row

ST. LOUIS -- David Perron scored a power-play goal eight seconds into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Ryan O'Reilly won the period-opening face-off to Alex Pietrangelo and skated into the left circle before passing to Perron in the right circle. Perron pulled the puck to the inside of Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski before scoring with a wrist shot.
"We know there's eight seconds (remaining on the power play entering overtime), and I talked to O'Reilly] and said, 'Let's get it going up the ice if we can,'" said Perron, who also had an assist. "I kind of got caught in between because we also had a breakout in case it went a little deeper there. I kind of just went back for a second, and I went back in the [offensive] zone, and [Pietrangelo] found me with a nice pass. We were able to get two points here tonight, which is big."
***[WATCH: [All Blue Jackets vs. Blues highlights]*
Robert Thomas, Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist scored, and Jordan Binnington made 27 saves for the Blues (8-3-3), who won their third straight game and are 5-1-0 in their past six.
"We know we can play better," Schenn said. "We're grinding out wins right now, letting teams hang around. Columbus is a good team, but we feel like we didn't play our best hockey game tonight, but we were able to get the two points tonight, and we'll take it."
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Oliver Bjorkstrand each had a goal and an assist, Sonny Milano scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 23 saves for the Blue Jackets (5-5-3), who are winless in their past three (0-2-1).

"We played a lot better, more competitive on pucks," Columbus defenseman Seth Jones said. "We did more simple plays, played more direct."
Milano scored on a rebound to give the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 5:41 of the second period before Bjorkstrand's power-play goal made it 3-1 at 10:36.
Schenn and Sundqvist scored 26 seconds apart to tie the game for the Blues. Schenn's power-play goal on a wrist shot from the high slot at 12:07 made it 3-2, and Sundqvist made it 3-3 at 12:33 when he followed his own rebound.
"It was nice to see it go in," Sundqvist said after scoring his first goal in 10 games. "It's been a while, so it was nice."

Of losing a two-goal lead, Bjorkstrand said, "It [stinks]. You've got to find a way to keep that lead, and unfortunately they found a way to get back in the game."
Thomas gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 14:05 of the first period after Tyler Bozak spun and passed to him in the slot.
Dubois tied it 1-1 with six seconds left in the period after a Pietrangelo turnover in the offensive zone. Dubois redirected Gustav Nyquist's saucer pass over Binnington.

They said it

"We took a step in the right direction, for sure. We played a good hockey game. Third period, I thought we were on our heels just a little bit and at certain times at the end, but it's a step in the right direction. To lose that way, it's a tough one." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"Tonight, for me, it's not that we're not ready, but they came out quick and hard on us like we thought. That's a young, hard-working team. I thought they jumped on us early and created some chances. Our goalie made big saves at the right time."-- Blues coach Craig Berube

Need to know

Perron reached 300 NHL assists on Schenn's goal. He has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past three games and 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) in 43 games against Columbus. ... Schenn has six points (five goals, one assist) in his past six games and 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 22 games against the Blue Jackets. ... St. Louis is 6-0-3 when scoring first. … Dubois extended his point streak to five games (six points; three goals, three assists). ... Bjorkstrand's assist on Milano's goal was his 100th NHL point. … The Blue Jackets are 0-5-3 when allowing the first goal.

What's next

Blue Jackets:Host the Calgary Flames on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SNW, SNP, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-W, NHL.TV)