 O'Reilly is an unbelievable faceoff guy, and I just want it to be fair. It's too bad it ended like that.''Pietrangelo and Tyler Bozak each scored a goal. O'Reilly and Jay Bouwmeester had two assists apiece for the Blues. Jake Allen made 40 saves in his first appearance since Jan. 17 as the Blues took their second game in as many days from Nashville, following up a 3-2 win in St. Louis on Saturday. Allen, who has sat behind rookie Jordan Binnington, called it probably one of his longest stretches without playing since being in the NHL.''It's tough if you're a goalie or a player, just to get your legs back more than anything,'' Allen said. ''You always feel a little wonky out there at the start of the game, but you try to settle in as quick as you can and find your rhythm again, so that was the biggest thing, especially in a big game, a big rivalry. We are clawing for points.''Viktor Arvidsson scored two goals, giving him an NHL-best 15 since Jan. 1. Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg also scored, and Ryan Johansen and Ryan Ellis had two assists each. Nashville had tied it with a pair of goals over the first 6:10 of the third period, and it was Tarasenko who put the Blues ahead. He got the benefit of a bounce to beat Saros at 7:06 for a 4-3 lead. Forsberg tied it up for Nashville at 12:53, and Tarasenko, who nearly scored within the final 80 seconds of regulation, could not be stopped in overtime. The Blues have won seven of their last eight, pushing themselves into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Nashville, which came in one point behind Winnipeg for the Central Division lead, had won six straight in this series on home ice, outscoring the Blues 26-8 with a couple of shutouts. Now the Blues are 3-1 this season against the Predators with the final game Feb. 26 in St. Louis. The teams combined for four goals over the span of less than three minutes early in the second. Pietrangelo beat Saros with a snap shot that hit off the left post and in 19 seconds into the man advantage. Tarasenko made it 2-0, beating Saros glove-side at 4:41, and Arvidsson finally put Nashville on the board with his 23rd this season, tapping the puck into an open net with Allen at the far post at 5:06. Then Bozak capped the wild scoring spree at 5:51, sending a backhander over Saros' stick for a 3-1 lead. NOTES: Tarasenko matched his career-high point streak, stretching his current streak to eight straight. He has seven goals and five assists over the streak. He has had two other eight-game point streaks, the last from March 25-April 9, 2016. ... Tarasenko also had a hat trick with an overtime goal on Oct. 28, 2014, at Dallas. ... Brett Hull is the only other player in Blues' history with a regular-season hat trick that included an OT goal with his on Oct. 9, 1997, against the Kings. ... Tarasenko also scored the third-fastest OT goal in Blues history. ... Forsberg became the first player in Nashville franchise history with five 20-goal seasons. ... Ellis notched his 200th career NHL point with an assist on Arvidsson's goal. UP NEXTBlues: Host New Jersey on Tuesday night. Predators: Host Detroit on Tuesday night.---Follow Teresa M. Walker at https://twitter.com/TeresaMWalker---More NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Time: 12:30 PM EST Venue: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN, 37203 / The St. Louis Blues were written off a month ago, fairly viewed as sellers instead of buyers as the NHL's trade deadline loomed, but plenty has changed with interim coach Craig Berube's club since then. St. Louis (26-22-5, 57 points) completes a back-to-back, home-and-home set when it travels to Nashville to face the Predators at Bridgestone Arena Sunday afternoon. The game will be the fourth of five meetings between the teams this year, with St. Louis having won two of the first three. The Blues jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Saturday and held on for a 3-2 win. St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington continued to sizzle, making 29 saves to increase his mark to 9-1-1 in his first 11 NHL starts. Suddenly, the Blues have found themselves in a favorable position, vaulting from the middle of the pack of teams outside of a playoff into the second wild-card spot as Saturday's games began. Berube's bunch moved two points ahead of Vancouver with two games in hand over the Canucks after the win. A successful 16-game run to open 2019 has triggered the Blues and moved them from pretender to contender. St. Louis defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Jan. 3. The win over the defending Stanley Cup champions sparked an 11-4-1 run that lifted St. Louis from last place in the Central Division and 10 points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference to holding the last playoff position after Saturday's win. Forward Brayden Schenn scored the only goal in a 1-0 overtime win over Tampa Bay on Thursday, taking a long feed from defenseman Colton Parayko and sending in his 10th goal as St. Louis swept both road tilts in Florida. In an uphill battle against the Panthers two nights earlier, the Blues erased a two-goal deficit in the third period to beat Florida 3-2 before preparing for the Lightning. Parayko expected the weekend series with Nashville to be no different -- tough, heavy games with major implications in the postseason." I think they're going to be like playoff games. That's where we're at for the season for both of us," Parayko said. "That creates a good matchup." Saturday's loss left the Predators (33-20-4, 70 points) in second place in the Central Division, trailing Winnipeg by one point in the standings, and the club has still won five of its last seven games. The Jets lost 5-2 in Ottawa. Nashville's goaltending and defense entered Saturday's game having allowed just 10 goals in the previous six games, but Vince Dunn, Vladimir Tarasenko and Mackenzie MacEachern all tallied for St. Louis. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm cut the deficit to 2-1, and Predators top-line center Ryan Johansen scored with 1:15 left in the game after MacEachern's goal. However, Binnington and the Blues held on for their season-high fifth straight win." The first 40 minutes were just not good enough, especially the way the Blues have been playing," Johansen told The Tennessean after the loss. "We knew we were going to be chasing the game." The good thing is we're right back at it tomorrow against the same team, and the work we brought in the third is what we need tomorrow for the whole game." --Field Level Media
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