Vladimir Tarasenko lifts Blues past Blue Jackets

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues have struggled to score goals of late, often resulting in them deviating from their game plan.
On Saturday, the Blues stuck with it and got a victory when Vladimir Tarasenko scored with 42.1 seconds remaining in overtime for a 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Scottrade Center.
Tarasenko cut around Columbus forward Brandon Saad and beat goalie Curtis McElhinney with a wrist shot from inside the left faceoff circle to give St. Louis (6-4-2) its second win in the past six games.

WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Blues highlights
The Blues have scored two or fewer goals in six straight games and eight out of nine.
"The amount of times that we've been pouring into meetings over the last few days since [a 5-0 loss at the New York Rangers on Tuesday], it hasn't been a great feeling around this locker room," said Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who got an assist on Tarasenko's game-winner. "I think to just finally have something positive to build off of and keeping our minds."
Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester also scored for St. Louis, and Carter Hutton made 20 saves.
"It's a battle right now," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's a battle to score, it's a battle to finish. We've got to get points. ... We've just got to dig in. We made some steps today."
Josh Anderson scored for the Blue Jackets (5-3-2), who lost for the first time in four games, and McElhinney made 28 saves in his first game of the season.

"I liked a lot of things," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "I liked a lot of things about a lot of players tonight. I thought we got better as the game went on. Our third period was good. ... I watched some other guys do everything they possibly can to try to win the hockey game, and then I see a few of our top guys, they did not give enough, and for this team to make the right steps to go where we want to go as we continue building the club, we cannot see that again in some of these guys as the lack of give in certain situations."
The Blues had dominated the game until a Shattenkirk turnover led to Anderson's third goal in two nights.
Getting some pressure from Columbus forward Boone Jenner in the St. Louis zone, Shattenkirk dangerously backhanded a pass into the slot, where Anderson picked it off and beat Hutton with a quick wrist shot at 12:55 of the second period to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead on their eighth shot of the game.
Shattenkirk said Jenner got a piece of his stick to force the turnover.
Bouwmeester scored his first goal of the season after taking Scottie Upshall's pass in stride. He stepped into a slap shot inside the left faceoff circle and beat McElhinney high to the short side 2:16 into the third period to tie the game 1-1.

Goal of the game

Alexander Steen was about to leave the ice to end his shift when he sent a cross-ice pass to Tarasenko, who gave Saad a little fake to the inside before skating around him for a clean look from just to the right of the left faceoff dot for the game-winner.

Save of the game

McElhinney gave the Blue Jackets a chance when he robbed Blues center Jori Lehtera with a right-pad save with 2:59 remaining in overtime off a one-timer from the high slot.

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Highlight of the game

Bouwmeester's goal gave the Blues life after they had been held without a goal into the third period.
"[Bouwmeester's] shot really energized us," Hitchcock said.

Unsung moment of the game

Upshall was part of a fourth line that gave the Blues energy, and he did so with a huge hit on Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson with 10:03 remaining in the game. Johnson was called for charging against St. Louis forward Dmitrij Jaskin 10 seconds later to put the Blues on the power play.

They said it

"It was a good play by [Upshall]. I don't know if they were coming off a change or some sort of transition. The whole side of the ice was kind of open. It's good when you get a chance like that."-- Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on his goal

"There's some panic moments there a little bit, but yeah, you're just trying to cover as much space as you can." -- Blue Jackets goalie Curtis McElhinney on Vladimir Tarasenko's overtime goal

Need to know

The Blue Jackets scored one goal a night after they scored 10 against the Montreal Canadiens, the most in their history. ... Blues right wing Nail Yakupov was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

What's next

Blue Jackets: Home against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Blues: Home against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FS-MW, ALT, NHL.TV)