Three keys in Blues' 3-1 win against Ducks
Playing less than 24 hours ago, the St. Louis Blues were going to have to dig deep.
Luckily for them, the drive down Interstate-5 in Southern California isn't a long hike, and they needed to be prepared for a vibrant Anaheim Ducks squad after suffering a loss against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The Blues were up to the task in a 3-1 win and received several solid performances to halt a modest two-game slide to improve to 9-7-1, good for 19 points, with one game left on the four-game road trip.
Let's jump right into the three keys that led to Sunday's win:
1. Another Blues challenge wipes out goal, gain immediate momentum -- This is where the game turned for me.
The Ducks thought they had just scored, a fluky goal by Urho Vaakanainen at 8:14 of the first period on a puck that somehow caromed off the boards in front and bounded off someone and over Joel Hofer in goal, but the Blues immediately challenged for offside and a quick review determined that Ducks rookie center Leo Carlsson, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, was in fact offside and the clock was reverted back to 8:19.
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Jake Neighbours would strike for the Blues off a turnover 1:06 later, they would add a Pavel Buchnevich goal at 16:34 and the Blues started off with a 2-0 lead.
Had they fallen behind, who knows how things would have turned out? The Blues are 1-7-1 this season when allowing the first goal, and there hasn't been one lead change in any of their games this season so playing from behind hasn't been one of their stronger suits. Playing with the lead has. They're 8-0-0 when scoring first.
2. Sundqvist, Toropchenko, Neighbours, Alexandrov set forechecking tone -- The bottom six group which included Oskar Sundqvist, Neighbours, Nikita Alexandrov, who played for the first time in nearly a month (Oct. 21), Kevin Hayes, Toropchenko and Kasperi Kapanen had an effective forecheck throughout the game and their contributions led to a number of key moments that led to goals.
All three of the fourth-liners [Sundqvist, Neighbours and Alexandrov] contributed to Neighbours scoring for the second straight game for the first time in his NHL career, and Toropchenko was part of a solid forecheck all night and was rewarded with a goal of his own that gave the Blues the cushion needed to close out a solid road win.
3. Big bounce back from Hofer -- Hofer's confidence could have been shaken after he was pulled in his last start, a 5-1 loss against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, but he was in full control of his game on Sunday with a 30-save effort.
Hofer was especially solid in limiting rebounds, played his angles well and didn't allow net front traffic to affect his game.
It took a strong move and shot by Mason McTavish to beat him in the second period, but Hofer made a number of key saves throughout when the Blues were looking for the opener and while protecting the lead that enabled them to extend it.
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