Nico Hischier was decked early in the second period by Jake Neighbours and Timo Meier came in to drop the gloves with him in a spirited fight. Meier received two minutes for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct in addition to the fighting major, giving the Blues their first man advantage of the night.
The Blues carried a territorial edge in the first half of the second period and outshot the Devils 7-3 during that stretch.
It was New Jersey, however, who scored with 7:58 to play in the middle frame. Anthony Mantha worked a nice give-and-go with Jack Hughes, tapping the puck in the slot neatly past Binnington to make it 2-0.
“If you give it to Jack, you know he’ll try and give it back,” Mantha said. “He has that play-making skills, and everyone knows about it.”
With Amadeus Lombardi in the box for slashing, the Blues scored their first of the night on the power play. Mason McTavish threaded a backhand pass through the crease to Robert Thomas, who one-timed it in.
Jesper Boqvist scored a highlight-reel goal, deking out the Blues netminder from close range after getting a nice feed from Luke Hughes.
Just 19 seconds later, Mantha got a breakaway and tucked it five-hole to put the Devils in front 4-1.
The two goals capped a three-point period for Mantha, who also assisted on Boqvist’s tally.
“I thought he had a couple really good moments, and those were goal scorer’s goals,” Keefe said. “They’re clearly a very important part of the game.”
Shots were 16-9 in favor of the Blues in the second, but the Devils outshot St. Louis 25-20 after 40 minutes.
The Blues drew within two goals with 8:14 to go in the third. McTavish picked up a rebound in front and put it past Hellebuyck.
Less than three minutes later, the Blues struck for two goals just 18 seconds apart. Philip Broberg netted one off the rush before Dalibor Dvorsky took advantage of a miscue with Hellebuyck behind the net to tie the game at 4-4.
Bratt acknowledged the third period was a departure from the way the Devils had been closing out games recently.
“We felt like we weren’t really emotionally engaged in that third period,” Bratt said. “We didn’t get the pucks out. We were kind of cheating a little bit on some pucks when they stayed in the zone. And I think they were just a lot hungrier than us in that third period.”
Hellebuyck agreed that New Jersey had moved away from the approach that had made it successful earlier in the game.
“We were playing a little too defensively, chipping pucks out and not really sustaining pressure,” Hellebuyck said. “I feel like we have legs and we have puck control, so that’s what we need to stick to.”
Keefe called a timeout following the Blues’ tying goal, looking to settle the group with just over five minutes remaining.
“We acknowledge that we got what we deserved. We put ourselves in this situation for that to occur,” Keefe said of his message. “We had to then regroup. There’s five minutes left. Now we’re in a situation where you need to get the point.”
The Devils had a late power-play opportunity but were unable to convert, sending the game into overtime.
Shots on goal at the end of regulation were 35-31 in favor of New Jersey.
Overtime didn’t last long. Dougie Hamilton broke up a St. Louis odd-man opportunity before sending Bratt away on a breakaway. Bratt made no mistake, beating Binnington just 1:26 into the extra frame to give New Jersey the 5-4 victory.
“Obviously, I had a lot of time to think on a breakaway like that in the overtime compared to five on five,” Bratt said. “Just try to make him move … I tried it out, and it worked for me as well.”
While the finish secured New Jersey’s sixth consecutive home victory, the players recognized there were lessons to take from the night.
“These are the lessons that you want to learn early,” Hellebuyck said. “These are going to pay dividends in your playoff time.”