It was strange territory for the Blues. They had led 2-0 in each of their seven previous games. But the Blues weren’t going down easy.

First came a fight by Colton Parayko. Yes, Parayko. After an apparent hit by Parayko on Dallas defenseman John Klingberg, Stars forward Brett Ritchie went after Parayko. It was only the second fight for Parayko in his NHL career, with the first coming nearly three years ago on April 3, 2016 against Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog. Slight edge, Ritchie, in this one.

“I think (Ritchie) must have thought that I hit (Klingberg), or something but I think I missed him,” Parayko said. “And it just kind of happened I guess.”

Both players got five-minute majors for fighting, but Ritchie got an extra two minutes for roughing, and the Blues used those two minutes to get on the board with a Tarasenko power play goal off an O’Reilly pass from behind the net. It was Tarasenko’s 27th goal of the season and his 16th in his last 21 games.

That made it 3-1, but Dallas got its three-goal lead back three minutes later on a tip-in by Benn for his second goal of the game. But with just 23 seconds left in the second period, the Blues cut Dallas’ lead to 4-2 on O’Reilly’s goal — giving him 24 for the season and goals in three consecutive games.