St Louis Blues @ Dallas Stars 3-2 OT - 12/29

Kevin Shattenkirk's power-play goal with 11 seconds remaining in overtime gave the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. Shattenkirk's goal, which came off a one-timer from the left circle, rang off the left post and the far post before going in. T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist, and Vladimir Sobotka had two assists for the Blues; Brian Elliott made 28 saves. St. Louis went on the power play late in OT when Stars rookie defenseman Kevin Connauton was called for tripping Derek Roy at 4:24, and the Blues converted 25 seconds later. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock was clearly pleased to see his team win for the fourth time in five games, and he gave much of the credit for the deciding goal to Sobotka, who assisted on the first and final goals.

"Yeah, [Sobotka] did a lot of work on that," Hitchcock said. "He did a lot of work creating the penalty and did a great job obviously on the goal."

Jamie Benn and Ryan Garbutt scored for the Stars. Hitchcock said he felt line changes he made after the second period helped the Blues regroup in the final 20 minutes of regulation and gave them momentum heading into overtime. "I felt like we had to regroup. They were coming at us pretty good in the second. We got caught on some changes and we looked tired. Then, for whatever reason, we made a couple changes in the lines and they got a little bit more energy and then we started to play again. I was happy with the third period. We did a lot of good things in the third period."

Dallas appeared to grab momentum early with a goal by Cody Eakin 23 seconds into the game. It was nullified after Garbutt was ruled to have made contact with Elliott in the crease, denying the goalie a chance to make a play on Eakin's shot.

"I thought we did our best to try to avoid contact," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "It's a tough call. It's a call they make a decision on the ice, and it's made."

Thirty seconds later, Garbutt was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Blues capitalized at 2:41 when Jaden Schwartz scored his 13th of the season. Sobotka, who missed the Blues' win Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks with an upper-body injury, delivered a pinpoint pass from the left circle to Schwartz, who was alone at the right post and easily scored with a quick snap. Sunday marked the first game back in Dallas for St. Louis forward Brenden Morrow, who played 835 games for the Stars and served as captain from 2006 through 2013 before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins late last season. A video tribute to Morrow was played in the arena during the first period.

"[I was] trying not to tear up [watching the video]; it's a lot of good memories here," Morrow said. "I grew up with these fans. So it was a nice little tribute. I just wanted to make sure I got through it, didn't tear up and acknowledged everyone."

Early in the second period, Dallas peppered Elliott, but St. Louis went ahead 2-0 at 5:12 when Oshie beat Kari Lehtonen to the short side with a wrister from the left circle. The unassisted goal, which came on St. Louis' first shot of the period, resulted from Connauton misplaying the puck just outside the left circle, a miscue Oshie collected and finished perfectly. Dallas made it 2-1 when Benn beat Elliott with a one-timer at 8:13 with the Stars on the power play. Ray Whitney got the primary assist, feeding Benn from the right corner, and the captain finished with a well-placed wrister for his 13th of the season. The Stars tied it at 11:31 of the second when Garbutt redirected an Aaron Rome wrister past Elliott for his seventh of the season. Rome's shot from near the blue line was into heavy traffic, and Garbutt made contact inside the left circle. Oshie was called for slashing Benn 1:11 into overtime after he knocked Benn's stick out of his hand. Dallas was unable to convert on the 4-on-3 power play.

"It was a well-played game, a hard game," Ruff said. "You get those few opportunities. We took advantage of our couple, and we just missed out in overtime, which hurts. But it was an important point to come back and get. You have to give our guys a lot of credit for battling back. We got a point out of it."

Lehtonen stopped 19 of 22 shots for Dallas. St. Louis, which defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 in a shootout Saturday night, wound up with a sweep of a tough back-to-back.

"I think we're happy with getting four points out of four," Schwartz said. "Pretty gutsy wins by us, a nice comeback win last night and kind of a character win for us tonight. So it's definitely nice getting that extra point both nights."