St Kilda led by 34 points early in the third quarter before watching all but four points of that margin evaporate as Carlton slammed on five goals in a row.
Then Fraser Gehrig, who has slipped the blade between the ribs of more opponents than Mack the Knife, missed two shots on goal at the start of the last term.
Once Aaron Fiora scored a goal a few minutes later after running hard into space at half-forward, extending the lead to 23 points, the Saints found their rhythm. Brendan Fevola, who played a Dr Jekyll second half to go with his Mr Hyde first half, took a strong mark against two opponents for his sixth goal a few minutes later, but Carlton could find no more after that.
Gehrig wound up with six goals after his best game of the season. The winners were also well served by the ageless and peerless Robert Harvey, Nick Dal Santo and some lesser lights in Sam Gilbert and Leigh Fisher.
Fevola wound up a good player on the night and Lance Whitnall also fought hard for three goals and a couple of assists. Heath Scotland worked hard around the ball but the Blues were still several good players short of challenging even a depleted St Kilda.
Goals to Gehrig, Nick Riewoldt and then Jason Gram to a solitary reply from Fevola pushed the Saints' lead out to their biggest of the match in the third term.
Andrew Walker's badly needed goal looked likely to be immediately cancelled out when persistent work by Dal Santo got the ball to Brett Voss just 25 metres out on an angle.
But Voss' kick hit the post and the Blues then slammed on four more goals to give them five in a row and reduce the margin to just four points.
Fevola got two to take his match tally to five. Whitnall got one and Eddie Betts snapped another from 40 metres out to send the Carlton fans at that end of the ground into a state of delight they could scarcely have dreamed of 15 minutes earlier.
At one point, St Kilda had nine men in the defensive 50. Which side was responsible for the flood was unclear, but it reflected the way things were going.
The Saints steadied for Gehrig to add the last two goals of the quarter and go into the final term leading by 15 points.
It had been 21 points at half-time. Four goals in each quarter might not have been prolific, and eight goals from 16 scoring shots was hardly William Tell-like accuracy, but it made Carlton's 4.11 from 15 shots look shabby.
The Saints, looking to bounce back from last week's inept performance in the wet against Port Adelaide, had created enough chances in good scoring positions to build a handy lead.
Gehrig and 20-year-old Southport ruck-forward Gilbert each had two goals.
Gilbert's second was a beauty, taking the ball out of the air at a ruck contest and guiding it to his foot in one movement. Riewoldt was being well held by Jarrad Waite.
The Blues sprayed several shots - Cameron Cloke missing a sitter on the run and a set shot from 35 metres - but that was balanced by a couple of lucky goals.
The luckiest was when Matthew Clarke spoiled a marking contest on the 50-metre arc, with two teammates in line to take the mark. He knocked the ball to the centre point of the arc where Whitnall accepted the gift and kicked his second goal.
Fevola's first-quarter goal came when he was on the end of a handball, his second when a bad clearance put the ball in Whitnall's hands and he poked a pass back across the 50 to the full-forward.
Otherwise, Fevola had been well held by James Gwilt who had more of the ball in the first term than anyone else on the ground.
Fevola also gave away a 50-metre penalty for a high spoil on Harvey, one of several incidents sure to be looked at by the match review panel. He spent a short time on the bench.
Steven Baker may also come under scrutiny for what looked like high contact on Jordan Russell in the first quarter.
ST KILDA 4.38.813.1118.17
(125)
CARLTON 2.54.1110.1411.16
(82)
GOALS St Kilda: Gehrig 6, Milne 3, Gilbert 2,
Gram2, Dal Santo, Koschitzke, Riewoldt, Fiora, Harvey.
Carlton: Fevola 6, Whitnall 3, Betts, Walker.
BEST St Kilda: Dal Santo, Ball, Gehrig, Harvey,
Montagna, Gilbert. Carlton: Waite, Fevola,
Scotland, Whitnall, Walker, Thornton.
UMPIRES Rosebury, Allen, Jeffery.
CROWD 45,513 at Telstra Dome.
