ST. LOUIS — No overtime needed — or wanted — on Friday.

The Blues used a big third period to beat the Senators, 4-3, at Enterprise Center on Black Friday. St. Louis scored three times in the third period, as Matthew Kessel's goal at 9:19 of the period served as the game-winner.

Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich also scored in the third period, while Oskar Sundqvist scored in the second period. Shane Pinto, Fabian Zetterlund and David Perron scored for Ottawa.

It was the first time the Blues scored more than two goals in a game since Nov. 14 against Philadelphia. The Blues returned to St. Louis after finishing a five-game road trip with a 1-1-3 record.

St. Louis will host Utah on Saturday night.

Coming back

The Blues scored twice in the first 5:33 of the third period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.

First, at 2:01, Kyrou found open ice in the slot, where Jake Neighbours found him for a backhand finish. It was Kyrou's team-leading seventh goal of the season. About 3 1/2 minutes later, Buchnevich scored his first goal in more than a month, finishing a 2-on-1 with Brayden Schenn.

Buchnevich's goal snapped a 16-game goal drought, and it was his first even-strength goal of the season.

Perron tied the game about two minutes later from the inner slot on a turnover by Colton Parayko that caromed into the slot.

Same old story

For the 10th time in the last 11 games, the Blues took a 1-0 lead, this time courtesy of Sundqvist's goal about eight minutes into the second period. Sundqvist broke up a play in the neutral zone, which set up Nathan Walker's shot towards goal that was redirected by Mathieu Joseph in the high slot.

Sundqvist followed the rebound behind the net, and then banked a shot from below the goal line off Senators goaltender Leevi Merilainen and into the net. It was Sundqvist's first goal of the season as he entered the afternoon third on the team with nine assists.

Sundqvist's goal also made it six games in a row that the Blues scored first, and the 14th time in the last 18 games.

The Blues' lead was short lived, though. Pinto scored 2:12 after Sundqvist, capitalizing on a bad line change by St. Louis. As the Blues needed a change, defenseman Matthew Kessel failed to install the puck deep and instead allowed Ottawa to get out in transition.

Pinto and Michael Amadio missed the net on their attempts, and Nikolas Matinpalo was stopped by Jordan Binnington. But Pinto was there to clean up the mess and tie the game at 1.

The Senators took a 2-1 lead with 1:34 left in the second period on Zetterlund's fourth goal of the season. Zetterlund hopped on a puck behind the Blues' net, faked like he was going to the opposite post to get Binnington off his mark. Then Zetterlund tucked the puck in short side into the vacated opening.

Some chances

The Blues had a few more opportunities to score early on. Schenn had maybe the best chance of the afternoon in the opening minute of the first period when he blocked Artem Zub's shot at the right point, springing him on a breakaway from the red line.

Schenn tried to go to his backhand, but his stick snapped in two, potentially weakened by either the shot block or the slash on the hands by Ottawa's Jake Sanderson.

In the final minute of the first period, Dalibor Dvorsky had two quick chances in the slot set up by Schenn. Both shots were saved by Merilainen.

Immediately following a second-period Blues power play, St. Louis generated a prime look thanks to a quick pass up the ice by Binnington. He found Dylan Holloway at the far blue line, and his pass to Philip Broberg couldn't be corralled in tight at the net to get a quality shot on goal.

Lineup changes

Kessel entered the lineup on defense in place of Tyler Tucker on Friday afternoon. Kessel was paired with Justin Faulk and played on his off side.

The Blues dressed the same 12 forwards, but mixed around the combinations of the top three lines. They looked like this:

Jake Neighbours — Robert Thomas — Jordan Kyrou

Brayden Schenn — Dalibor Dvorsky — Pavel Buchnevich

Dylan Holloway — Pius Suter — Jimmy Snuggerud

©2025 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.