In St Louis, the Blues’ Joel Hofer made 39 saves on Wednesday to help St Louis to a 2-1 win over the visiting Dallas Stars.
“It was a good challenge,” Hofer said. “Those are the kinds of games you look forward to, especially a divisional rival. It was a lot of fun and obviously we got the win, which made it even better.
“I was seeing it well. Just trying to stop the puck, trying to make it as easy as I can. The [defensemen] did a good job and forwards especially at keeping it to the outside for the most part. Got the win, which was the most important part.”
St Louis improved to 18-15-1 off their third straight win.
“I thought Joel was outstanding,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “His play from the beginning, he was great on the [penalty kill] for us early on when we had to make those two kills, but made some key saves for us and in the third, too, with some difficult saves in tight. Not a lot of rebounds. He did a good job of controlling his rebounds here tonight, but he was outstanding right from the beginning to the end.”
Jake Neighbours staked the Blues to a 1-0 lead at 18:08 of the first period.
“Jake’s a goal-scorer,” St Louis’ Scott Perunovich said. “No matter where he’s at on the ice, I’m going to try and get it to him. He can score from anywhere, as he’s shown. He gets open, makes a nice play to the top, gets open and then he does the rest, and ‘Saader’s’ unbelievable screen, too.”
Marco Scandella pushed the lead to 2-0, with the game-winner at 10:53 of the middle frame.
“I feel like Scotty’s playing really well right now just creating space out there and moving his feet, so I’m kind of reading off him,” Scandella said. “[Kasperi Kapanen] on the goal made a nice play to open me up.”
Dallas dropped to 20-9-4.
“You know, a 2-0 hole, that was the game,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “We were chasing it all night.
“We did some good things. You have to give their goalie some credit. You get in a 2-0 hole on the road in any building in this league and you’re going to have some trouble.”
Dallas’ Jason Robertson scored at 18:35 to trim the deficit to 2-1.
His goal came after Dallas killed off a two-skater advantage to the Blues for a full two minutes.
“We just got a very big kill,” Robertson said. “I got on the ice and I was kind of fresh. I was trying to get open and they found me and I was able to score.
“Our PK was excellent. [Wedgewood] made some big saves. It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to tie it up.”
Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves in the loss.
“We do a good job,” Wedgewood said. “I felt like I had some good reads, and I knew what they wanted to do. When it’s 5-on-3, it’s obviously give it your all. These guys know what they’re going to get from it is a little bit of old school, a little bit of a road hockey goalie. We scrambled there in the crease. You’re on your stomach. That brought me back to the road hockey days of playing with my brothers.”
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