ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues have rarely been involved in one of these tight, low-scoring games.
And after playing the Dallas Stars here 11 days ago, an entertaining 4-3 overtime win on a Colton Parayko goal served as the appetizer to the rematch on Wednesday.
But this time, it was more hard-nosed, grind it out. Goaltending was going to be imperative, key plays were going to have to be made, and when protecting a slim lead in the key moments of the third period, how would the Blues react?
Well, they reacted well with a 2-1 win, their third straight and fifth in six games under interim coach Drew Bannister.
Let's get into it and break down the three-period takeaways from a game in which each team had its moments to take control:
* First Period -- Unlike Dec. 16 when the Blues fell behind 2-0 early, they seemed to keep the game tight-checking and limited on scoring opportunities.
But when Brandon Saad was called for high-sticking at 7:52, it was time for the PK to go to work against the league's 14th-ranked power play.
But through it, the nest scoring chance came from Brayden Schenn, whose shot was blocked following a 3-on-1 when Nick Leddy intercepted a pass and joined in a rush with Alexey Toropchenko.
On came Joel Hofer, who made a number of crucial saves among his NHL career-high 39 of them on Wednesday.
He made a reaction glove save in tight on Wyatt Johnson and gloved the ensuing rebound by Jamie Benn with 7:40 remaining in the period to keep the game scoreless.
The PK would have to go to work again when Robert Thomas was called for a rather ticky-tack holding call at 15:10 when he looked like he cleanly won the puck over from Roope Hintz, but the Blues were able to get the kill and limit Dallas to just two shots in two power-play chances.
It never fails when a goalie makes a save at one end, a team winds up scoring at the other. Such was the case when Hofer denied Benn with 3:08 to go in the period lunging to his left and kicking out his left pad..
Then it was Jake Neighbours, who finished off his 12th of the season at 18:07 to give the Blues a 1-0 lead after Saad's forecheck forced Jani Hakanpaa into losing the puck in the right corner, Neighbours picked it up and got it back to Scott Perunovich, who moved to the middle of the ice before finding Neighbours for a one-timer above the right circle with Saad providing the net front traffic.
"Jake's a goal scorer," 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."
The Blues were outshot 14-8 but had the lead thanks to Hofer.
"I thought Joel was outstanding," Bannister said. "His play from the beginning, he was great on the PK 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."
* Second Period -- The Blues were going to get their chances on the power play and did so when Tyler Seguin was called for hooking Alexey Toropchenko at 6:01, and he didn't agree with the call. But the Blues could not convert against the league's second-ranked PK.
Marco Scandella finished off a play and made it 2-0 at 10:53, scoring from just outside the left circle when the Blues entered the zone at 9:31 and used 24 seconds and 12 touches of the puck worth of cycles before Scandella used Neighbours as a screen, along with Benn, to beat Scott Wedgewood.
In all, Kasperi Kapanen entered the zone with the puck and the puck then went to Brayden Schenn to Neighbours, to Perunovich, to Schenn, to Scandella, to Perunovich, to Neighbours, to Scandella, to Perunovich, to Kapanen, who found Scandella coming in hot and heavy.
"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 of his defensive partner. "'Kapi' on the goal made a nice play to open me up."
The game got real interesting here.
Dallas' Craig Smith high-sticked Scandella with the butt end of his stick and got four minutes at 14:16, to which Scandella said he received three stitches, and then when Johnston air-mailed the puck into the stands with 22 seconds left in the first minor to Smith, the Blues would have a full two minutes of 5-on-3.
This is where they could have put the game away. They did get eight shots in all but failed to score, and not long after, Jason Robertson made it a 2-1 game when he converted a wicked wrister from the high slot after Justin Faulk's failed backhand dump in was intercepted by Roope Hintz.
"I think that's where we've got to score," Bannister said. "We had some great opportunities, wide open nets and we missed them. Their goalie made a couple key saves for them, but that's the time of game where we can really separate. We needed a goal there. The chances were there. We've just got to bear down and score. That's plain and simple. We created the opportunities. We've got to finish them.
"We made a poor decision at the blue line there and didn't get the puck in. That's an opportunity for us to get it deep and get some fresh guys out."
Wedgewood did rob Jordan Kyrou sprawling with one of those chances, but it was a chance to basically win the game there.
* Third Period -- So the bottom line is the game would now be won or lose in the third period.
The Stars seemed to have the momentum with Robertson's late goal in the second, and Dallas certainly pushed, getting some strong scoring chances, starting with Joe Pavelski's mid-air slapper from the slot with 14:20 remaining that Hofer got a laugh about.
"He kind of looked at me and said, 'That was lucky,'" Hofer said. "I kind of laughed at him. It's part of the game. There's luck everywhere. I had a good chuckle about it."
But Hofer would have the last laugh. He was able to deny everything that Dallas would throw his way.
Hofer spoke to The Hockey News during the morning skate about being more relaxed in his last outing, a 4-1 win against the Florida Panthers, and he followed that up with this performance, one in which Perunovich said he noticed something in Hofer's game and had a recent chat with his teammate about it over dinner.
"I think when we were in Springfield, we were always chatting," Perunovich said. "We'd have full conversations throughout the game, during the play. That just seemed when he was at his best. We were talking and I just said, 'You used to be way more relaxed, have more fun and we'd have more success.' I think that's something that he wanted to change.
"We're at dinner and we'd bring stuff up. We try and pick each other's brains and that was one of the conversations. I think he said the same thing to me, so we had a good chat about it and it seems to help."
Hofer said, "It was a good challenge. 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 d-men 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."
