It took overtime for the St. Louis Blues to beat the Dallas Stars tonight, and it was a hat-trick goal by Vladimir Tarasenko which gave the Blues the win.
Tarasenko, who had never registered a hat-trick in the NHL before tonight, scored in the first, third, and the overtime period to give the Blues the victory. He also registered an assist on a Jori Lehtera goal to give him four point on the night. Lehtera also notched two assists, one on each of the first two Tarasenko goals, to give him three points on the night.
Jamie Oleksiak, Tyler Seguin, and Trevor Daley scored for the Stars tonight, but the Blues never gave up.
Oleksiak scored at the 13:10 mark in the first period, but the lead didn't last long. Tarasenko scored his first goal of the game just 35 seconds later to tie the game.
David Backes took a unsuspecting in the first period, after Daley hit him in a vulnerable position. The hit should have been an interference call, as the puck was a good 15 feet away from the two players. Backes' head bounced off the ice and the puck was all the way at the other end of the ice before Backes even got back on his skates. He did not return to the game after the hit. One has to fear that he might have a concussion, as he was very wobbly headed off the ice.
Seguin scored in the second to give the Stars a 2-1 lead, but Lehtera scored just 37 seconds later to even the score. Tarasenko had the beautiful feed to Lehtera for the goal.
Daley scored a power play goal for the Stars early in the third period to give the Stars their third lead of the night. It took the Blues eight minutes to tie it this time, a beautiful goal by Vladimir Tarasenko, to tie the game. Tarasenko completely faked out Ryan Garbutt, who was defending the play, and beat Kari Lehtonen to the blocker side to even the score.
It took overtime to find a winner, and it was a power play goal by Tarasenko to end it. Alex Pietrangelo dished the puck to Alexander Steen, who then fed Tarasenko for the one-timer. The goal beat Lehtonen as he tried to slide across to cover the net.
All four goals were scored on Lehtonen's blocker side, which was his weak point tonight. He dropped his blocker on almost every goal against.
Brian Elliott stopped 25-of-28, and made some huge saves to keep the Blues in the game in the third period, which includes stopping Erik Cole on a breakaway in the third period when the game was tied.
The Blues will be back at it against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday back on home ice.
Ivan Barbashev Interview
In case you missed it, here is an interview with Blues prospect, Ivan Barbashev, by Alessandro Seren Rosso. Barbashev sheds light on his draft experience, who helped him during the Blues training camp, and even how he met his wife. You can read that
here. Be sure to give it a read!
Oh, and Rosso called the Tarasenko hat-trick tonight as we talked earlier today. Be sure to follow Rosso on twitter
@AlessandroSerenRosso.
As always, you can get message me at
[email protected] or on twitter
@randallritchey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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