Two or three goals behind? This isn't a problem for the Blues early in the season after OT beat the Sharks

During an eventual 5-4 overtime Blues win over the Sharks on Thursday night, the scoreboard whispered the falsehood that San Jose had sealed the game by building a three-goal lead early in the third period.

The numbers on the screen said the Sharks dominated the second half and that the remaining 20 minutes could be a formality, the final crowning moments of a night that Sharks fans would remember in Macklin Celebrini's debut. The lead was too big, the time was too short, the comeback was too fictitious.

The Blues made sure the scoreboard had some explaining to do.

With the last four goals of the game, the Blues rallied from a 4-1 deficit early in the third period and secured an overtime victory thanks to Brayden Schenn's goal in the 45th second of overtime. Radek Faksa, Ryan Suter and Justin Faulk (game-winning extra attacker goal with 47 seconds left in the third period) each scored a goal in the third period, supporting Pavel Buchnevich's goal in the first period.

“We play for each other,” Schenn said. “I know it’s early and it’s only been two games. We have a lot of new faces here. We have a good feeling in our locker room where the guys play for each other. Boys speak up. Boys bring energy. Boys play together.”

The victory followed Tuesday's come-from-behind victory in Seattle, a 3-2 victory in which the Blues erased a 2-0 Kraken lead in the second period and shut them out in the third period. It was the second time in franchise history (also 2009–10) that the Blues won the first two games of the season by trailing by at least two goals.

It was also the fifth time the Blues won a game despite trailing by three goals in the third period, most recently last December against Chicago – coincidentally, another game against a No. 1 pick who had a special moment .

“Tonight is proof of how we have to play,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “All you have to do is sit back and watch the first and third periods and see what we did, what we were able to do. We played on offense, we were aggressive, we attacked, we checked ahead, we defended quickly. That’s how our team has to play.”

Thursday unfolded in three different acts.

The first period belonged to the Blues. The Sharks controlled the second. The Blues won the third period and achieved overtime.

The Blues outscored San Jose by 22 shots in the first period. It was the first time in more than a decade (March 25, 2014) that St. Louis took at least 22 shots in a first period, and yet the Blues still took a 1-2 lead into the first intermission.

Celebrini scored his first career goal by deflecting a pass off Matthew Kessel's skate and then setting up Tyler Toffoli's goal with a pass from behind the net. San Jose had the lead, but the flow of the game suggested it wouldn't last long.

But the Sharks pushed back in the second period, outscoring the Blues 17-7 and scoring both a power play goal and a shorthanded goal. They built a three-goal lead in front of a packed home crowd and delivered a middle period that brought back memories of the Blues' failures against the Sharks last year.

There was no silence in the Blues dressing room during the second break.

Schenn: “It wasn’t quiet in the room during the second break. There are some people here with positive energy. There is no point in judging what happened negatively. They scored two goals from hard balls and we had a good first half.”

Faulk: “We had a good first third, we had a lot of chances. We thought if we could repeat that and go out there again and get chances like that, let's start with one and go from there. I don't have the exact words, but it was just about holding ourselves accountable and telling ourselves, 'It's not good enough.' Guys knew it. Guys said it a little bit.”

Bannister: “We just have to play the way we need to in order to be successful. Sometimes when things don't work out in the first half, you get away quickly despite playing really good hockey. And we escaped our game. Then we end up in a hole from which we have to get ourselves out. It's good that they recognized that we have to get back to work here and play the way we have to play to be successful. Now they see it.”

The fourth line of Faksa, Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker led the way in the third period. The first two goals were a direct result of the work put in by the line and helped boost the belief of the Blues group.

They helped bury the 0-2-1 record against the Sharks from last year.

“All in all, it wasn’t the feeling we had against this team last year,” Schenn said. “It felt like we actually played hard and scored a lot of goals, but when we got back to our game of going straight north, we scored all the goals.”

The Blues only achieved their second victory on December 16th last year when they conceded their first goal. It was only on December 23 last year that they won their second game from a two-goal deficit.

This year's Blues have discovered their resilience before any other NHL team, and for a team that added seven new players to its roster, that could go a long way toward steering the season in the right direction.

Even if they had to fall behind to do so.

“You could tell the guys weren’t just closed off,” Faulk said. “They were not happy with what was going on. They became frustrated. In a way, that's a good thing, right? You have to find emotions and play this game with emotions. Once you don’t do that, things can go sideways.”