Takeaways From Blues’ 3-2 OT Win Against Bruins

Had the St. Louis Blues dropped their game Saturday against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden, it would have been one of those didn’t-win a deserved-to-win type of game.

But all that was put to rest when Brayden Schenn scored his ninth career overtime game-winner in Blues history, resulting in a 3-2 come-from-behind win against the Bruins.

Aside from a hiccup in the first period, the Blues (8-9-1) had the majority of the better of the play, outshooting Boston (8-8-3) 31-17, the lowest shot total allowed by the Blues this season.

It was one of the more proverbial “complete” games this season for the Blues and one that actually has been building after that disastrous game one week ago against the Washington Capitals.

Let’s look at the today’s takeaways:

* Blues won all three zones — To be able to say you could dictate all three zones is a rarity. The Blues did just that.

Aside from the Nathan Walker turnover that led to St. Louis’ own Trent Frederic scoring his second goal of the game to put Boston up 2-1, the Blues were able to close plays in the defensive zone, transition pucks into and through the neutral zone, which in essence led to more offensive zone time.

They didn’t give the puck away in bad areas on the ice, and they created some glorious scoring chances as a result of sustained offensive zone time.

* ‘WTF’ Line continues to shine — Walker, Radek Faksa and Alexey Toropchenko on most nights will line up as the Blues’ fourth line to provide energy and a good forecheck while defending the ice without the puck.

With a rash of injuries, it’s been playing as a third line, and aside from all the aforementioned good, consistent play that line has been providing, it accounted for two goals and three assists on Saturday, with Faksa (one goal, one assist) and Toropchennko (two assists) leading the way and Walker scoring a huge tying goal in the third period.

Faksa’s net front presence got the Blues on the board first, the third straight game in which they have opened the scoring, making it 1-0 at 6:25:

The Blues didn’t deserve to be down, to be quite frank, when Walker’s goal tied it 2-2 at 9:18 given the buildup through the first when they fell behind to that point, but all five guys, including defensemen Scott Perunovich and Justin Faulk each with a pinch to keep pucks alive, to Faksa and Toropchenko’s forechecks, and Faksa’s eyes-in-the-back-of-his-head no-look backhand pass to the slot for Walker’s wrister finish:

* Second period domination — The Blues didn’t score in the second period, but they outshot the Bruins 9-5 and seemingly had the puck in Boston’s end for the majority of the period.

Even down a goal entering the third period and Boston’s sparkling 6-0-1 edge when leading after two periods, if the Blues kept being aggressors like they were in the second period, there was a great sense they would at the very least tie, if not win the game.

* Scorin’ Scotty — Perunovich didn’t score today, but this was one of his best games as a Blue.

With the Blues ravaged by injuries (Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, Philip Broberg, P.O. Joseph) to their blue line, Perunovich has been thrust into the spotlight, and for the lack of confidence he’s displayed to begin the season and even going back to last season, that confidence is growing, something he spoke of after scoring his first NHL goal against the Capitals.

He finished with the one assist and was a plus-1 in 18:50 time on ice with two shots on goal, two hits and two blocked shots.

* Schenn’s second OT winner — Schenn hasn’t scored at near the clip the Blues need from their captain (three goals in 18 games), but he’s made the most of two of them with being OT game-winners:

Looks familiar, doesn’t it? Very identical to the OT winner Schenn scored in San Jose on Oct. 10:

With his ninth OT game-winner, Schenn is now one off of tying the franchise record held by Vladimir Tarasenko.

Here’s what coach Drew Bannister, Schenn, Perunovich and Walker had to say about the game: