A captain returning from injury and winning a hockey game in perhaps his final go-around with the team.

A long scoring drought ended by a new, old Blue.

A late-blooming defenseman who keeps pushing to be an every-game player in the NHL.

And the start of a new era in Blues hockey, without Vladimir Tarasenko on the roster for the first time in 11 seasons.

Those were the most meaningful threads in a wild-and-crazy 6-5 overtime victory by the Blues over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday at Enterprise Center, which ended a five-game losing streak.

The Blues fell behind 2-0 after one period, then scored the next five to seemingly take command 5-2 midway through the third. But then they gave up three Arizona goals, the last one by Lawson Crouse with 56.9 seconds left in regulation, sending the contest into overtime tied 5-5.

But Ryan O’Reilly, out for the entire month of January with a broken foot, sent the 24th sellout crowd of 18,096 - in 25 home games this season – home happy with the game-winner.

“A nice play by Buchy,” O’Reilly said. “I just kind of criss-crossed it with him, and saw I had a little lane there. So I just kind of got my young legs going and made a little move and it got by him.”

The play began with Pavel Buchnevich circling back into his own zone, then passing to O’Reilly right at center ice. The two players criss-crossed, with O’Reilly sending the puck back to Buchnevich who returned the favor shipping it back to O’Reilly at the edge of the right circle.

O’Reilly skated in, deked Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka, and then barely squeezed the puck in past the outstretched right leg of the goalie who had posted a 33-save shutout in a 5-0 win over St. Louis on Jan. 26 at Mullet Arena.

O’Reilly’s 11th goal of the season and first since Dec. 27 against Toronto came at the 1:02 mark of overtime.

“Oh gosh, it feels so good to be able to contribute,” O’Reilly said. “Just to be back out there with the guys. Especially a game like that, too, when you kind of start flat and find your way.

“I thought the guys did a good job. I thought there was life on the bench. Guys were talking. Even when we went down a couple, it was positive. Guys knew we were gonna find a way to get our game going, and that’s what we did.”

There’s lots of conjecture that O’Reilly will be dealt by the March 3 trade deadline. Sammy Blais, who returned to St. Louis as part of a pre-deadline deal Thursday that sent Tarasenko to the New York Rangers, had a triumphant return to Enterprise.

The night started with enthusiastic applause when Blais’ name was introduced as part of the Blues’ starting lineup. Blais, who played 119 regular-season and 27 playoff games over parts of four seasons with the Blues, felt the love.

“I've always loved playing here,” Blais said. “And in my heart, I never should have left, but it's always a business. They're the greatest fans in the league, so I'm just happy to be back here and help this team win.”

He was a big help late in the second period, when he skated out of the penalty box after a slashing penalty, took a stretch pass from Nick Leddy, and then faked Vejmelka off his feet, scoring with a high backhand to tie the game at 2-2.

It was Blais’ first regular-season NHL goal since May 1, 2021 in a 4-3 Blues overtime loss at Minnesota. He had gone 0-for-New York, after being traded for Buchnevich that summer, going 54 games without a goal over parts of two seasons.

Anyway, the crowd was jumping after Blais’ goal Saturday.

“I can't even describe it,” Blais said. “It was just a nice pass by Leddy. Just happy I got this one out of the way and I'll just keep moving forward.

“In the breakaway, I’ve always had a little success. I saw the goalie was right-handed so I just tried to make a move and he went down, so I just shot it in and it went in.”

The Blues, who got their first goal from Brandon Saad, and then took a 3-2 lead on a Robert Thomas goal, kept it going in the third period. After Thomas’ score, Nicklas Lidstrom – uh, make that Calle Rosen – scored the next two goals to make it a 5-2 lead for St. Louis.

“He’s like Lidstrom back there right now, the way he’s moving,” O’Reilly said, referring to the Hall of Fame defenseman. “It’s unbelievable. He had a great game, he’s so smart with that puck. Two amazing shots. He was a great reason why we won this game.”

With that in mind, who needs Jakob Chychrun when you’ve got Rosen? The coveted Coyotes’ defenseman was held out of the lineup Saturday for “trade related reasons” according to Arizona.

For those keeping score, Rosen now has seven goals this season, matching Chychrun’s season total.

Rosen has been in and out of the lineup this season, but coach Craig Berube decided to make Robert Bortuzzo a healthy scratch and start Rosen with Tyler Tucker on the team’s third defensive pairing coming out of an 11-day All-Star game/bye week break.

“He’s played really well for us, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t keep playing,” Berube said. “That was the thought process, like why are we taking him out? The one thing with not having Borts and (Niko) Mikkola in there, they are good penalty killers. So we’ll have to look at that.”

Mikkola went to the Rangers as part of the Tarasenko trade, so he’s not going to help the Blues’ PK anymore. St. Louis gave up two power play goals Saturday, the second of which (by Nick Bjugstad) helped fuel the Arizona third period comeback.

The Blues (24-25-3) lost leading scorer Jordan Kyrou with 5:47 left in regulation after taking a blow to the head. He was taken out of the game by the NHL concussion spotter and did not return.