The Blues entered the game at 48-23-7 while the Stars were 37-31-10. Goaltender Brian Elliott got the call for St. Louis, while Kari Lehtonen was the starter for Dallas.
Dallas got the first power play opportunity when the Blues Jori Lehtera was called for hooking just 1:01 into the game. Next off the ice was the Blues T. J. Oshie, who was sent off for slashing at 7:28, but the Stars failed to convert on either advantage. The Stars pesky Frenchman Antoine Roussel was called for the first Dallas penalty, this coming at 12:50 for tripping, but two minutes later the game remained scoreless.
The Blues Patrik Berglund was the first to score late in the period at 17:49 when he beat Lehtonen with assists from Zbynek Michalek and captain David Backes.
With just 10.1 seconds remaining in the first period, Michalek undercut the Stars Travis Moen, who was awarded a penalty shot against Elliott. Moen went wide to his right and cut across in front of Elliott and beat him to the other side for a 1-1 tie after the first period.
Just 15 seconds after the puck dropped for the second period, Berglund restored the Blues lead when he redirected a point shot from Kevin Shattenkirk past Lehtonen with the second assist to Russian Dmitrij Jaskin.
Patrick Berglund celebrates his second goal of the game
A mere 17 seconds after Berglund's goal, Jay Bouwmeester fed the puck up the ice where Oshie and Jaden Schwartz broke up the ice, with Oshie centering a pass to Schwartz, who converted for the second Blues goal in rapid succession.
Jaden Schwartz got the Blues second goal in 17 seconds
Right off the ensuing faceoff, the puck came back to Bouwmeester, who mishandled it. Tyler Seguin swooped in and was able to knock the puck over to Jamie Benn, who snapped a wrist shot past Eliott just six seconds after Schwartz goal!
The three goals in 38 seconds, when combined with Moen's goal with just 11 seconds left in the first period, set an NHL record for the Fastest Four Goals in a game at 49 seconds, beating the previous mark of 53 seconds set by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks in 1983. The three goals in 38 seconds also set a record for the fastest three goals in league history from the start of a period, breaking the mark of 65 seconds set by the Montreal Canadiens and Hartford Whalers in 1989.
Of note, the fastest three goals by both teams still stands at a mere 15 seconds when Mark Pavelich and Ron Greschner of the New York Rangers and Willi Plett of the Minnesota North Stars kept the lamp lit in the final minute of the second period on February 10, also in 1983.
That mark was challenged when the Minnesota Wild Ryan Carter and Nino Niederreiter and Buffalo Sabres Zemgus Girgensons managed the feat in 17 seconds on November 13, 2014. Two other times teams registered three goals in 18 seconds, while the Boston Bruins hold the record for the quickest three goals by one team when they managed to do it in 20 seconds on February 25, 1971 against the Vancouver Canucks when Johnny Bucyk, Ed Westfall and Ted Green all scored. Bill Mosienko famously holds the record for the fastest three goals by one player, when he scored a hat trick in 21 seconds on March 23, 1952.
Finally, the record for the quickest four goals by one team belongs to the 1944-45 Bruins, when Bill Thoms, Frank Mario twice, 19 seconds apart, and Ken Smith all tallied in 1:20 against the New York Rangers on January 21, 1945.
The game settled down for a spell, with no scoring for the remainder of the first half of the period despite penalties at 5:14 to Roussel for hooking and Oshie for interference at 5:57.
Dallas tied the game at 3-3 when Seguin scored at the midway point of the period at 10:01 with an assist from Benn. 4:39 later the duo combined for their third consecutive goal when Benn scored his 30th of the season from Seguin and Valeri Nichuskin at 14:40 to now give the Stars a 4-3 lead after being down 3-1 14 minutes earlier.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin combined for three consecutive goals
Roussel then extended the Stars lead to 5-3 with a goal less than a minute later when he got his 13th of the season from Ryan Garbutt and Cody Eakin, the fourth straight goal for Dallas.
Before the second period ended though, Schwartz got his second of the period and 27th of the season when he beat Elliott with just 26 seconds left in the period to pull the Blues back to within one when assists from Alex Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk.
Jaden Schwartz got the Blues back to within one with his second of the game
The third period was 3:07 old when Roussel and Steve Ott were sent off for roughing. At 4:44, Michalek tied the game at 5-5 with just his 4th goal of the season from Oshie and Bouwmeester.
Just three seconds after an interference penalty on Trevor Daley of Dallas expired, Pietrangelo restored the St. Louis lead at 9:57 with an unassisted goal to make it 6-5 for the Blues.
Schwartz was whistled for hooking at 13:05 but the Stars power play failed to find the tying goal.
With time now winding down and with the Dallas net empty, Schwartz completed the scoring at 19:38 with his 28th goal of the season to complete the second hat trick of his career to make the final score 7-5 for St. Louis after both teams staged comebacks by scoring four straight goals.
Jaden Schwartz sealed the victory for the Blues
Despite all the scoring by the Blues, other than Schwartz's hat trick, no other player had more than 2 points on the night, while Benn and Seguin had 3 points each when they assisted on each other's goals during a span of 14:02 during the second period.
Today's featured jersey is a 2014-15 St. Louis Blues Jaden Schwartz jersey as worn when he scored the second hat trick of his career, with the first goal contributing to the fastest four goals in NHL history.
The Blues introduced this jersey as their new primary road jersey for the 20-14-15 season, which in nearly identical to their alternate jersey that debuted in 1997-98 and became the Blues primary jersey the following season. The original version was used through the 2006-07 season until it was replaced for the 2007-08 season when Reebok introduced their new Edge jerseys.
When this style was revived for the 2014-15 season, the only change from the first version is the narrow white stripe on the arms and waist separating the blue and yellow stripes, which was not present on the original version.
The Stars look got a complete makeover for the 2013-14 season when they altered their color palette, dropping gold and changing to a lighter shade of green never wore before during their time in Dallas. The team also introduced a new primary logo and a brand new set of jerseys to complete the overhaul of their look.
In today's video section, Schwartz's three goals, the first of which was the third of the record four fastest goals.
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