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Blues come back to stun Blue Jackets in OT

Mar 10, 2011 - 3:47 AM Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - Chris Stewart scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime, as St. Louis overcame a three-goal deficit to stun Columbus, 4-3, at Nationwide Arena.

Stewart tied the contest in the third period, minutes after Ian Cole scored his first NHL goal for the Blues, who swept the home-and-home series over the last three days.

Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves, including just five in the third period, to earn the win.

Jakub Voracek, R.J. Umberger and Derek MacKenzie notched the goals for the Blue Jackets, who have lost six in a row, all but one of them by a single goal.

Columbus netminder Mathieu Garon made 22 saves in defeat.

"For about 33 minutes, we did everything we wanted to do, we played hard, created chances, had some opportunities and scored some goals," Columbus head coach Scott Arniel said. "For the remaining 27 minutes, we stopped playing. We got careless and got away from what we were doing right in the first half of the game."

On the deciding goal, Carlo Colaiacovo passed to Stewart inside the Blues zone and the third-year winger did the rest of the work himself. He burst through the neutral zone and into the attack zone down the left side, roofing a backhander over Garon from below the circle to give the visitors their third win in the last four tries against the Blue Jackets.

Trailing 3-1 entering the third period, the Blues pulled even within the first 6 1/2 minutes.

Cole blasted a slapshot from the top of the right circle off Garon's arm and into the back of the cage at 2:32, and Stewart scored on a shot from the right of the crease at 6:23.

Cole nearly got his first goal with four minutes left in the first period, but it was wiped out due to goaltender interference. After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, it was the Blue Jackets who struck first, just 1:43 into the middle session.

Rick Nash led a 3-on-2 down the right side and sent a cross-ice pass to Derick Brassard. Brassard fed into the slot for Voracek, who knocked the pass down on the backhand and tucked a forehand by Halak.

The hosts added to their lead with a power-play tally just 2 1/2 minutes later. Grant Clitsome gathered a deflected pass in the left circle and took a shot that Umberger redirected into the net.

Then, Jared Boll came flying down the left side and put on the brakes at the top of circle. He found the trailer MacKenzie, who whistled a one-timer past Halak from the center point at 8:07.

St. Louis finally found the back of the net five minutes later, when Alex Pietrangelo took a feed from Alex Steen and scored on a wrister.

"That was a big one to take into the locker room," St. Louis head coach Davis Payne said of the team's first goal. "Our third period we knew we were going to have to play with them; we wanted to keep working and let effort create the results and I thought our guys did that."

Game Notes

Columbus was 1-for-4 with the man advantage, while the Blues were 0- for-2...Nash and Steen both recorded their 30th assists of the season...Brassard was activated off injured reserve Wednesday. He had missed the last eight games after suffering an injury against the Kings on February 18.