DeBrincat, Blackhawks defeat Blues in overtime

CHICAGO -- Alex DeBrincat scored with nine seconds remaining in overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at United Center on Saturday.

The Blackhawks (3-0-2) set an NHL record with their fifth straight overtime game to begin the season. The New York Rangers began the 1997-98 season with four.
Chicago earned at least a point in each of its first five games for the 11th time in history and third in the past 41 seasons.
***WATCH: [All Blues vs. Blackhawks highlights]*
"I don't know. I think we just love playing 3-on-3 or something," Blackhawks forward Nick Schmaltz said. "But five in a row is crazy to start a year. We can do a better job with the lead. At the same time, we're not giving up when we're down. Guys are making big plays at key moments. That's a good sign to show we can come back when we're down."
Duncan Keith played in his 1,000th NHL game and had an assist for the Blackhawks, and Cam Ward made 35 saves.
Brayden Schenn scored twice, and Jake Allen made an NHL career-high 46 saves for St. Louis (1-1-2).
"For me, it's about building here right now," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "It's good that the guys battled back and got a point, that's for sure, but still, there's some areas that need to improve here and we need to fix. The emotions are there, the intentions are there, but we're not playing smart enough yet to be a good team, to be a really consistent team. Too much hope in our game when you play like that."

DeBrincat tied the game 3-3 at 13:06 of the third period after a Blues turnover.
"We've got to figure out a way to keep the lead from the start," DeBrincat said. "We're coming out and playing well, getting two-goal leads, and they seem to disappear. We have to do something about that.
"We want to come back and win every game. It gives us confidence to come back, but we'd definitely rather keep the lead we have."

Schenn's power-play goal at 4:47 of the third period, a wrist shot from the right circle, gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead and capped a run of three straight goals.
Schenn cut Chicago's lead to 2-1 at 12:35 of the second, and David Perron tied it 2-2 on the power play at 1:44 of the third.
"I like that we kept our focus after the first period," Perron said. "That's what we talked about, making sure we don't play the score. We keep playing 5-on-5 knowing we would probably get some power plays if we outwork them, and that's what happened. We found a way to get some big goals obviously. [Schenn] was excellent tonight, was driving our line. It's tough to lose that point, for sure. We also have to look at some positives."
Artem Anisimov, who had an assist on DeBrincat's winner, gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 11:51 of the first, and a power-play goal by Patrick Kane at 16:01 made it 2-0.

They said it

"Not a big deal to me, to be honest. I'm just doing what I can right now to give the boys a chance. We were close again tonight but still not there. We've got to find a way to take it to another level." -- Blues goalie Jake Allen on making an NHL career-high 46 saves
"We've had five games, every one of them have been extremely intense, and the game's been on the line from start to finish. Outside of the Minnesota game [a 4-3 loss Thursday], we were pleased for the most part of playing overtime games. ... I don't know how many games we've been down in the third period, and coming back to win is special, because when we were down 3-2, I don't think we had any business being down 3-2 because I liked the way we were playing." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville

Need to know

Keith is the sixth player, and third defenseman, to play 1,000 games with the Blackhawks. The others were Stan Mikita (1,394), Bobby Hull (1,036), Eric Nesterenko (1,013), Brent Seabrook (1,009) and Bob Murray (1,008). ... Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews has nine points (five goals, four assists), DeBrincat has nine points (six goals, three assists) and Kane has eight points (five goals, three assists) during season-opening five-game point streaks. ... Perron has four goals, three on the power play, in the past two games. … This was the first game brothers Jordan Schmaltz of the Blues and Nick Schmaltz of the Blackhawks played against each other in the NHL.

What's next

Blues: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; FS-MW, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks:Host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-A, NHL.TV)