DALLAS — There were times after the first period when it seemed like the Blues could do little to slow, let alone halt, the tempest of shots the Dallas Stars were able to generate, and just as many times that it didn’t matter.

Jordan Binnington was there to stop them.

The Blues goaltender bent this way and slid that way and poked pucks with his stick every which way to withstand the Stars and carry a tie game into overtime. The Blues, winners of five of their past eight games entering Saturday’s game at American Airlines Center, had a chance to move within two points of the Stars with a win — all because of Binnington’s ability to turn a single power-play goal early in the first period into a game that assured them of at least a point.

The Blues' 13th consecutive game in a 13th different rink — they never played back-to-back games at home — ended with 2 minutes, 29 seconds remaining in overtime. Matt Duchene gathered momentum through the neutral zone, got a stride on Blues' defenseman Justin Faulk and, on the Stars' 37th shot of the evening, broke the tie for a 2-1 overtime victory in front of a sellout crowd.

Jordan Kyrou gave the Blues a lead seconds after a power-play expired, and Dallas answered to tie the game during their series of power-play chances in the second period.

Once the Stars found their gear, the peppered Binnington with shots.

He just didn’t flinch.

Binnington had allowed four goals in each of his past two games. And he lost both of them, including the Blues’ lone loss on their Western Canada swing and their return home this past week. In his previous four games, Binnington had allowed 14 goals and the Blues went 1-2-1 — the speedbumps in this acceleration under new coach Jim Montgomery.

The Blues generated so few scoring chances partially because there was so little time to do so when Binnington wasn’t vexing the Stars.

He did it with almost every contortion possible. He smothered a puck on his back as if ready to do a snow angel. He pounced on a puck like catching a loose frog. He swatted one away with blocker pad, and in the third period he squeezed his skate so tight to the post that Dallas’ Jason Robertson could not shove the puck past. With 2 minutes remaining in regulation, Binnington made a casual glove save to foil a rush. Halfway through the third period, Binnington faced a crowd descending upon him and got in front of a shot. The rebound dropped near him, but he couldn’t get control of it, scooping it instead to Dallas defenseman Brendan Smith.

No matter.

Binnington made that save too.

That series on the Stars’ 31st and 32nd shot attempt of the game gave Binnington his sixth game of the season with at least 30 saves.

Fowler makes his debut, contributions

Out of the pond and right into the mix, former Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler made his Blues debut in the opening shifts of Saturday’s game. Paired with Faulk, he joined the team that traded for him that morning for a faceoff in Dallas’ zone. Acquired to help shoulder some of the ice time that’s been lumped onto the Blues’ veteran blueliners, Fowler made early contributions during his eight shifts in the first period.

With the Blues leading 1-0 but the Stars threatening with cycle after cycle buzzing around the Blues' goal, Fowler disrupted a pass near Binnington to create a scramble and just enough for his new teammate to smother the puck.

Dallas’ Jamie Benn had a potential rush foiled by Fowler’s poke-check.

It won’t show up in the box score because Binnington made the save with his stick, but midway through the second period Fowler was there to complicate what would have been a point-blank shot by Logan Stankoven. The Stars’ forward got a step on the defense toward the crease and was there for the pass that Binnington blocked — but not that long. Fowler slipped behind Stankoven and lifted his stick at about the time the pass would have arrived.

Power play pressure pays off

For the majority of their first power play of the game, the Blues not only had the man advantage but also the stick advantage.

Early in the attempt to kill, Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin lost his stick. It took almost 30 seconds before a forward was able to pass him one, and even then the Blues maintained possession and pressure on the Stars’ short-handed, sans-stick foursome. The forward who slipped Lyubushkin his stick, Colin Blackwell, was able to block one attempted shot — but that only set up the next shot that got past.

Blackwell dropped to the ice to block Robert Thomas’ attempt shot. Thomas got the rebound, and Blackwell had no stick to disrupt what came next. Thomas zipped a pass to Kyrou on his left and after a slight hesitation that gave him a lane, Kyrou whistled a shot for his 12th goal of the season. The goal came seconds after the power-play expired but before the Stars had collected themselves for full strength.

‘Impose our will’

The retooling of the lines that began in the closing period of Thursday’s loss continued at Saturday’s morning skate with Dylan Holloway moving up and Brandon Saad shifted to a scratch for the first time this season. Montgomery said the lines that finished one game didn’t inform his choices as much as how he wanted to begin the next game.

“I’m more concerned about how we start the game and how we impose our will, so to speak, to start the game,” he said.

If that’s measured by score, it’s not something the Blues have done often.

Kyrou’s goal gave the Blues a lead going into the second period for only the sixth time in 30 games this season. The Blues scored first in a game for the 13th time this season. There were more ways to measure the “imposing” Montgomery wanted than that solitary goal or even the rare early lead. The Blues impeded the Stars’ ability to generate rushes, and neither team had a shot on net in the first five minutes of the game. When Dallas did snag a turnover near the blueline and conjure a scoring chance, Binnington smothered it.

The Blues had a dozen hits in the period, and they drew two penalties.

“It is interesting how quickly you can see what Monty is trying to do and some of the characteristics of his teams,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said Saturday morning. His team faced Montgomery earlier this season when Boston visited. “And how quickly they’re getting up to speed on that.”

The Blues’ hold on the game loosened the minute the second period started.

Stars align

Within the first 3 1/2 minutes of the second period, the Blues misplaced the lead and committed two penalties — one for delay of game and the other for holding on to a stick.

Both came during and contributed to a long stretch where the Stars dictated play and the Blues went almost half the period and almost 14 minutes of total play without a shot on net.

Dallas received its first power play on a delay of game infraction by Brayden Schenn. It took the Stars about 25 seconds to get their power play in position and ready to send the shorthanded Blues chasing within their zone. The Stars’ game-tying, tic-tac-toe-tac-tic goal came on the seventh pass of a possession. Dallas set up the play from near the point, and then cross-stitched the puck seamlessly back and forth, eventually getting it to captain Benn near the stick-side dot. Robertson threaded into the slot and freed himself up at its top. Benn delivered. Robertson darted it past Binnington.

Less than a minute after the power-play goal, the Stars had the advantage again after the stick grab. Before the first shift of that power play, Dallas already had five shots on net, not to mention a tie game. Dallas had at least as many shots in the first period (10) and in the second period (14) than the Blues had total through 40 minutes of play (10). And Dallas had three power plays in the second period. One fizzled when Evgenii Dadonov whiffed on an open net to Binnington’s glove side.

The other power play, in the closing minutes of the second period, was stymied by Binnington. Dallas’ 20th shot of the game was a quick snap from a wide-open Stankoven. Binnington slid to his right to gave the shot nowhere to go but into him.

The power play went nowhere from there.

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