There was a special guest up in the press box on Saturday night at Scottrade Center: Todd McLellan. The San Jose coach, who guides his

Sharks against the Blues on Sunday at Scottrade, was in town early,studying the Note, looking for keys to beating the NHL's best home team.

The Colorado Avalanche gave McLellan some material with which to work.

Following an inspiring victory at New Jersey on Thursday, the Blues were not at their best in front of a sellout crowd of 19,150. But in the end,they were successful.

Carlo Colaiacovo's deflection with 1:42 remaining in overtime provided the Blues with a 3-2 victory. The play developed when Patrik Berglund wheeled and fired a shot from just inside the blue line. The puck hitColaiacovo and caromed into the net. The game winner was Colaiacovo's second goal, his first since Oct. 22.

"It's not through lack of trying, through lack of chances," Colaiacovo said. "Hopefully, it takes something like this to get the ball rolling.

At the end of the day, I'm just so happy we won."

The Blues have the best home record in the NHL, with 50 points from a 23-3-4 mark. And they have been among the best teams in the league overall under coach Ken Hitchcock, building a 27-7-7 record on his watch.

That said, they didn't get any style points against the Avalanche, who pushed the envelope despite playing for the second time in as many nights. Hitchcock expects a similarly difficult test against McLellan's Sharks.

"They're going to be a rested team," Hitchcock said. "I'm sure they're going try to master us in the first period. We just have to be ready.

For the first game back after a road trip, I would say if I was the other coach that, 'They play a simple game, just like we do. They're playing hard and smart.'

"I think the first period is going to be key. They're going come at us hard. They have a lot of size and a lot of beef. It's going to be a real battle."

Their success notwithstanding, the Blues often have made star of the game candidates out of opposing goaltenders. On this occasion, they helped highlight the play of Colorado keeper Semyon Varlamov by outshooting the Avs 44-19.

Before Colaiacovo's heroics, only David Perron had solved Varlamov,scoring two goals in the first period. Perron also assisted on the overtime winner and has six points in his last three games.

"It's just great to get two points" in the standings, Perron said.

"There's a lot of games on our schedule lately, and we're dealing with whatever we have. When we play back to back, the biggest thing we can do is turn the page right away. It'll be another big game (Sunday)."

While they played Friday night in Denver, the Avs showed no signs of fatigue Saturday in the first period, taking a 1-0 lead 10 minutes into the game. Colorado's David Van Der Gulik won a faceoff in the Blues' zone, pulling the puck back to Shane O'Brien. The defenseman's slapper

found the back of the net behind Blues netminder Brian Elliott (18-5-2).

A replay showed the puck deflected off the stick of Blues defender Ian Cole.

The home side bounced back with a power play goal some two minutes later. A holding infraction sent former Blues forward Jay McClement to the box, and Perron took a pass from T.J. Oshie and swept the puck past

Varlamov for his eighth goal of the season.

With 3:43 remaining, Perron struck again, giving the Blues a 2-1 lead.

This time, the Blues had a five-on-three opportunity after Chuck Kobasew and Ryan O'Byrne committed consecutive penalties. Perron gained possession along the left boards, drifted into the faceoff circle and sniped his second goal of the period, fifth in three games. Oshie got his second assist.

"He's so good at protecting the puck, and he's been scoring goals for us lately," Colaiacovo said of Perron. "We consider him an elite player on our team, that's for sure. And if he's an elite player on our team, that makes him an elite player in the league."

Just when you thought the Blues were hitting the accelerator, the Avs made good on a late power play to tie the score. Scott Nichol was off for interference when former Blues No. 1 draft pick Erik Johnson pounded a shot past Elliott with 51 seconds to play.

The goal was the second of the season for Johnson, the first in 23 games, and sent the teams to intermission knotted 2-2.

"It's not the first and hopefully it's not the last," Johnson said of his goal against his former club. "But if felt good."

Penalty killing has been a problem for the Blues of late. They have

given up at least one power play marker in seven of their last eight games.

"I know if we don't get that fixed, it's going to come back and really

bite us," Hitchcock said. "I don't know how many times we've given up goals on the other team's first power play, but it's way too many. I'm concerned about that right now."

Elliott re-established himself with a dazzling glove save on Peter

Mueller early in the second period. However, although they had 13 shots in the period, the Blues struggled to re-establish a fluid attack, and the session ended with the score still 2-2.

With just over four minutes to play, Jamie Langenbrunner made a nifty move to the front of the net but couldn't get a backhand shot away before the Avs cleared. With 2:24 remaining, Cole was flagged for interference in the neutral zone, giving the visitors another power play.

The Blues held fast until Mueller was whistled for holding a stick with 41 seconds remaining. The period ended scoreless and the game remained a 2-2 standoff, but that bode well for the Blues.

The Blues have owned the third period under Hitchcock. During the previous 17 games, they had outscored the opposition 12-3 in the third and for the season, they were a plus-18 in third period goal differential.

But the third proved to be more of the same.

The overtime worked out better.