ST. LOUIS – Drew Bannister was looking for more urgency, more drive and more willingness to stay in the fight of the games.

The St. Louis Blues coach certainly got it done with a 4-3 overtime win over the Dallas Stars at Enterprise Center on Thursday night.

Although Logan Stankoven allowed the game-winning goal with 39.7 seconds left, his second goal of the game, on a play that could and should have been defended much better, the Blues (2-4-0) were sharp and crisp and they left the game with a good feeling about what they can do before Tuesday’s regular season opener against the Seattle Kraken.

On Saturday there is another preparatory game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Milwaukee, in which a predominantly American Hockey League line-up will be playing.

“Right at the start of the first period I thought we played well,” Bannister said. “We were competitive, we worked for each other. There were a lot of good things in this game that I think we can take away and build on. Things we didn’t do in the previous game, I thought. “As a group, but our leadership, everyone participated and experienced a lot of positive things tonight.

“…I didn’t think we had passengers. I thought everyone came to play and they played with intention and enthusiasm. That was a good sign for us because I thought we showed resilience. Last year, I think.” We were 28th in the league when we were ranked first and that didn’t bother us at all. We didn’t deviate from our plan and I just thought we stuck with it and were rewarded.

In terms of points, Kasperi Kapanen and Philip Broberg each had a goal and an assist, and Robert Thomas had two assists, including Jordan Kyrou’s game-winner at 1:43 of the OT session.

A lot of good things happened in the game, a complete 180 turnaround from Tuesday’s 3-1 win against Columbus:

* Kapanen – By far his best game as a Blue, and not just because of the goal he scored, a beauty of a blind backhand that drove the net, spun and took advantage of Broberg’s rebound chance at 11:16 of the third period to give the Blues a 3 :1 to give lead…

… but Kapanen is fighting – and he is – for his job.

He finished the game with a plus-2 (could have had another assist if Mathieu Joseph hadn’t been called for the goalkeeper interfering with Ryan Suter’s potential goal), six shot attempts (three on goal), and one goal; He almost missed the goal in the first period when he fired a puck into the side netting.

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“I felt pretty good. I think you can tell once you get into a rhythm,” Kapanen said. “I think that’s the most important thing to keep the body feeling good and fresh, and I think that showed today.”

Joseph, who tied the game at 1-1 with a beautiful shot at 8:33 of the second period, praised his teammate for his play.

“He was good. He was great,” Joseph said of Kapanen. “He used his speed on the forecheck and went to the net. It was fun playing with these two tonight. I felt like we were chasing pucks and getting a lot of turnovers in the O-zone.”

* Line Kapenen, Joseph, Brayden Schenn – It was the Blues’ third line, their first game together this preseason, and they were puck chasers the entire time.

They were sharp, they were sharp, they defended the puck. Schenn had a late shift in the second half where he came back hard to finish a 2-on-1 duel at the end of his shift, and the trio seemed to play well against each other.

“I thought we played a great game,” Kapanen said. “I don’t think we spent too much time in our zone, which is always a plus. ‘MoJo’ and ‘Schenner’ are two great players, so I thought we had good chemistry and it was a good game.”

Joseph’s goal was a great example of them chasing the puck.

“I feel like when we did that tonight, keeping the puck in, tiring them out and switching and switching one by one in the O-zone, we had really good coverage,” Joseph said. “I think they did a great job. Schenner won two or three battles in a row after that to get the puck to ‘Kapi’ and I feel like our line was like that tonight. We were responsible defensively and when we could chase pucks, we did that and we created some offense.

* Buchnevich’s line set the tone – Pavel Buchnevich, Alexandre Texier and Kyrou were a newly formed team tonight that could set the tone for sustained ozone pressure.

In a series of plays, this line paved the way for the next line to come onto the ice and continue the permanent zone, namely when Joseph scored.

The line didn’t get on the scoresheet together, but it created positive momentum.

“They had some really good changes that we were able to build momentum off of,” Bannister said. “They weren’t rewarded, but if you play like that consistently, you get more chances and the puck goes into the net. They stuck with what they did well. I thought they handled the puck well at that time. “They were down low and did a good job of holding onto the pucks and getting things going and creating a cycle that also increased the shooting propensity of our entire group increased.

* Broberg – Bannister felt Broberg, playing a second game with Justin Faulk, may have tried too hard in his home debut on Tuesday. It was clear on Thursday that the defenseman played with purpose and contributed at both ends of the ice, including scoring a nice goal that gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 1:23 of the third period.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Bannister said. “Our entire D-Corps, his gaps to keep the pucks alive. There wasn’t a lot of room for the Dallas players out there and with that size and that reach, a great stick, I thought our D did a great job in transition. “We just get the puck to our forwards as quickly as we can , so we can turn around and attack. As a group I thought they all played well, but I thought Philip had a really good night tonight.”

Broberg was plus-3 with three shots on goal and played 18:52.

*Robert Thomas – It’s been a quiet preseason so far for the Blues’ No. 1 center, but playing with Jake Neighbors and Dylan Holloway for the first time helped create some quick transition opportunities, and Thomas had nice assists on Broberg’s goal and then set up Kyrou moving off the bench into the high slot at the end of a long OT shift to win it.

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