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Tarasenko's OT winner lifts Blues over Oilers

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ST. LOUIS (AP) The St. Louis Blues care only about winning, not the process to get there.

After the Blues tied the game twice in the third period, Vladimir Tarasenko scored at 4:20 of overtime to lift St. Louis over the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Friday night.

''I'm happy to have two points right now,'' Tarasenko said of his third game-winning goal this season and second in overtime.

Tarasenko's goal was his team-high 13th of the season. T.J. Oshie had a goal and two assists for his first multipoint game of the season. Jake Allen made 13 saves.

''Great comeback game for these guys,'' Oshie said. ''Snake (Allen) was great again. So we'll take the two points.''

The Blues, who rebounded from a shootout loss to Ottawa at home on Tuesday, have won four straight against the Oilers and nine of 10.

The Oilers, who were beaten 1-0 in overtime in Nashville on Thursday, have dropped nine straight games, including three in overtime. They have also lost 13 of 15.

''This is an extremely hard and tough situation for everybody in our organization, from the players to the coaches to the managers,'' Edmonton coach Dallas Eakins said. ''It is hard and it is painful, and somewhere you have to believe that this is going to make you extremely resilient and tough down the road.

''You are sitting there sometimes going, `What is it going to take to get a bounce, to get a call, to get something in your favor?' Right now it doesn't seem like hockey wants to give that to us. Even on nights where we believe that we do deserve the break.''

Ben Scrivens stopped 37 shots in the loss.

''I don't think we're playing good enough to win in the NHL,'' he said.

Oshie's second goal of the season, a drive from beyond the right circle after a drop pass by Tarasenko, beat Scrivens high stick side and gave the Blues a 1-0 lead with 8:25 remaining in the first period.

The Oilers went nearly 10 minutes in the first without a shot and had just three shots in the period, but they tied the game on David Perron's third goal of the season with 14:09 left in the second period.

Perron has two goals in four career games against his former team. He scored 84 in six seasons with St. Louis before being traded before the 2013-14 season.

Edmonton went ahead 2-1, its first lead since beating the Rangers on Nov. 9, when Nikita Nikitin scored off a back-door assist from Taylor Hall with 3:14 remaining in the second.

Kevin Shattenkirk tied it 2-2 with a long shot from near the blue line, assisted by Oshie, just 31 seconds into the third.

Mark Arcobello put Edmonton back in front 3-2 three minutes later with his fifth of the season off another nice pass from Hall.

The Blues tied it with 7:35 remaining when Alex Pietrangelo put in a rebound of Oshie's miss.

''They are an opportunistic team,'' Allen said of the Oilers. ''They've got those first two lines and some top-end skill. When they get chances they bury them.

''That's a team you have to grind, grind, grind. We came out in the third and we came out strong. Vladdy with another unbelievable goal to win it for us.''

NOTES: Blues coach Ken Hitchcock tied Mike Keenan for sixth on the NHL career wins list with 671. ... Blues D Jay Bouwmeester missed his fourth game with a lower-body injury, and is expected to sit out Saturday at Minnesota. ... The Blues outshot the Oilers 37-15 in regulation. . St. Louis is 12-0 when it scores at least three goals, and is 3-6-2 when scoring two or fewer.