Blues hold off Lightning, gain in Central

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues moved to within two points of second place in the Central Division with a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

The Blues (40-27-8) gained on the Nashville Predators, who lost 5-0 at the Winnipeg Jets, and moved six points ahead of the Dallas Stars, who lost 3-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nashville has played one more game than St. Louis, which has won three in a row.
"We need to make a push," said Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who had a goal and an assist. "Whatever other teams are playing doesn't matter, it's seven games left. Every point matters, especially after last year, and we know this. Just try to focus on our game."
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Blues highlights]
The Lightning (58-14-4), who have clinched the Presidents' Trophy, had their seven-game winning streak end and remain four wins from tying the NHL record for one season (Detroit Red Wings went 62-13-7 in 1995-96) with six to play.
"Took us a little bit to get our legs underneath us, and for obviously the final two periods, I thought we played pretty darn well," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We had some real good looks, they just didn't go in, and then we got the unfortunate offside, but it was offside, so it's tough."

Steven Stamkos scored on a Lightning power play with 5:43 remaining, but Blues coach Craig Berube challenged that the play was offside, and what would have been the tying goal was overturned after video review showed Brayden Point entered the zone ahead of the puck.
"Yeah, he had it pegged right away, so it was good," Berube said, referring to video/assistant coach Sean Ferrell. "It was pretty obvious what we saw … our video guy Sean, he was pretty adamant it was offside."
Point didn't dispute the decision.
"It was offside," Point said. "It was close, but it was offside."
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Binnington made 39 saves on an NHL career-high 42 shots for the Blues. Binnington is 12-0-1 against Eastern Conference teams.
"It's huge, it's huge for team confidence," Schenn said. "They're a very good team, playing great hockey, winning a lot of games, scoring a lot of goals. For us to come in and beat them two times this year obviously gives the team confidence, and we know we're a good team in here."
Point scored to reach 40 goals in the NHL for the first time, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the Lightning.

The Blues took a 3-0 lead in the first period with three goals in 1:15. Robert Thomas scored a power-play goal at 11:30 to make it 1-0. Alexander Steen made it 2-0 at 12:08 with his first goal in 13 games, and Tarasenko scored his St. Louis-leading 29th goal at 12:45 to make it 3-0.
"It was a good push for us, but we slipped a little bit in the second," Tarasenko said. "We should work (on this) and we shouldn't do this, give them feeling of the game. It became a tough match for us, but obviously always a 3-0 lead in the first is always good for us."
Alex Killorn scored shorthanded 27 seconds into the second period to get Tampa Bay to within 3-1, and Point scored at 7:24 to make it 3-2.
"For most of the first, I think it was a pretty even game, but for the second and third, we took over," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "That's natural when you're down three goals. You've got to make a push. We tied the game, but half the puck was still on the blue line."
Schenn gave the Blues a 4-2 lead at 14:24 with a between-the-legs backhand over Vasilevskiy.
Stamkos scored from the slot to make it 4-3 at 4:46 of the third period.

They said it

"I thought our compete was there, but you just can't spot them three goals like that." -- Lightning forward Brayden Point
"There's a lot of momentum changes in that game. Our fans helped us out a couple times. It was just a battle from the start of the second period on. Thankfully, we had a good first period and kind of built off that and just competed right till the end." -- Blues goalie Jordan Binnington

Need to know

The Blues lost 5-2 to the Colorado Avalanche in the final game last season with a playoff spot to the winner. ... Lightning forward Yanni Gourde served the first of a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Carolina Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal on Thursday. ... Binnington earned his 20th win to move within two of matching the Blues record for most in a season by a rookie goalie (Jake Allen in 2014-15).

What's next

Lightning:Host the Boston Bruins on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)
Blues:Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)