ST. LOUIS – Vladimir Sobotka scored from close range at 2:16 of overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.
St. Louis is 5-1, its best start since winning seven of its first eight in 1997-98. Coming off a 4-3 victory in Dallas on Saturday night, the Blues also improved to 3-0 at home.
Minnesota's Dany Heatley forced the overtime, tying it at 4 when he batted the puck out of the air with 4:08 left in regulation for his fourth goal of the season. The Wild have lost three straight.
Chris Stewart, Barret Jackman, Wade Redden and Patrik Berglund also scored for St. Louis, and Brian Elliott, getting his first home start, made 12 saves.
Zach Parise had two goals and an assist for Minnesota after also scoring twice in the Wild's 5-3 loss in Detroit on Friday night. Mikko Koivu added a goal, and Niklas Backstrom stopped 32 shots.
Stewart and Jackman scored 2:18 apart midway through the third to give the Blues a 4-3 lead. Stewart tied it with his fourth goal, a deflection off Alex Pietrangelo's shot, and Jackman put the Blues in front.
Parise scored on Minnesota's first two shots in the second period, both on power plays, to give the Wild a 2-1 lead. Koivu added a goal on a 4 on 4 to make it 3-1 in the second, but Berglund counted 1:01 later to pull the Blues within one.
Redden scored for the second consecutive night for the Blues after going nearly three years without an NHL goal. He slapped a shot from near the left boards about midway through the first period to open the scoring.
St. Louis entered the game as the best power-play team in the NHL, converting seven of 16 opportunities, but ailed on five chances against the Wild, with just three shots.
NOTES: The Blues wore jerseys with No. 6 and "Musial" on the back during pregame warmups in honor of St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial. He died Jan. 19. Musial's funeral and burial were held Saturday. The jerseys will be auctioned with proceeds going to charitable arms of the Cardinals and Blues. ... After playing its first six games in nine days, St. Louis gets three days off before playing Thursday night at Columbus.