ST. LOUIS – Jim Montgomery wanted to see what transpired in the third period Friday extend beyond one game, he wanted to see that desperation, that urgency moving forward.. Not just for a game here or a game there. The Blues got right back on the horse Saturday after a 4-3 come-from-behind win against the Ottawa Senators [http://thn.com/ottawa] on Friday and if they wanted to stay relevant in the Western Conference standings, they would have to follow up with another strong performance against a team above them: the Utah Mammoth [http://thn.com/utah]. A gritty, grinding match didn’t yield much, but Dylan Holloway provided the offense, and Joel Hofer’s redemption game stood tall for his second shutout this season with an 18-save performance in the St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis]’ 1-0 win at Enterprise Center on Saturday. The Blues (9-10-7) have strung together consecutive wins for just the second time this season and moved within two points of the wild card standings while dropping the Mammoth to 12-11-1. Let’s not waste any time and dive right into Saturday’s observations: * Massive five-minute penalty kill – To me, this was the game. When Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko and Mammoth rising star Logan Cooley collided in the neutral zone while the play was commencing into the corner, nobody really saw initially at what happened. As replays show, each skater was making a straight line play, and Toropchenko initially tried to shoulderncheck the Utah forward but their knees collided, with Cooley taking the worst of it as each was going straight line: Cooley lay on the ice in pain and needed help getting off, and there was no initial penalty called, but referees Chris Lee and Kendrick Nicholson went to video review and came back with a five-minute major for kneeing and a game-misconduct. Oh boy. In a 1-0 game, the Blues’ PK would severely be tested with just 6:17 off the clock in the third period. Not only did the Blues get through the penalty, but they only surrendered three shots on goal – none until very late – and got three shot blocks from Philip Broberg (two) and one from Mathieu Joseph. It culminated with Pavel Buchnevich laying out to break up a play. “I just think everybody’s really committed, they’re running really good lines,” Montgomery said. “I thought that we won face-offs that really mattered and we cleared pucks 200 feet. Excellent job by our penalty killers and whenever the puck came to ‘Hofe,’ he made the saves. “It’s been great to watch the last two nights hot committed guys have been to playing the right way, to sacrificing for each other, to being selfless again. It’s nice to see those qualities in our team identity.” The Blues were obviously shocked that they would be tested like that for five-plus minutes (more on that in a moment), but took the right attitude about it. “I don’t like to talk about what (calls) the referees make,” Montgomery said. “That’s the call they made and we’ve just got to deal with it. I loved the way we killed the penalty off.” So did Hofer, who marveled at his teammates for the sacrifice. “We did great,” he said. ‘I don’t think they got too much, a shot or two maybe. Guys were blocking shots, we were aggressive. A lot of good things. “It fires me up. I know I’ve got more padding than they do. They’ve got a lot of balls doing that. It’s fun to watch and we all deserved to win tonight, so it’s good.” There was such extra motivation to close that game out, whether by extending the lead, or hunkering down for a 1-0 game even though there were more than eight minutes remaining. “It’s huge,” Holloway said. “The momentum swing like that is incredible. Any time you get a five-minute penalty, it’s definitely, especially in that circumstance, it was tough, but it’s just kind of a testament to our attitude, our mentality. Guys weren’t getting down on the bench, guys were picking each other up and making good plays on the PK. That was a huge kill for us.” Broberg had five shifts during the kill, and had one simple description of it. “I think the sacrifice,” Broberg said. “I think when something like that happens, you just want to kill it off. I think we did a very good job of that.” * Montgomery nearly had a gaffe with the time on the major – With a major penalty, the Blues don’t initially have to put someone in the box for Toropchenko but needed a whistle before the time ran out to get back to even strength right away. This happened not long ago in another Blues game against the Montreal Canadiens, something associate coach Steve Ott reminded Montgomery of. What happens is once the penalty expires and you don’t have anyone in the box, it can extend beyond the elapsed time until the next ensuing whistle. It’s a calculated risk and one that can come back and bite a team. It actually extended to 5:17 because that was the next whistle, when Hofer covered up a puck in his crease. “That’s a mistake by me,” Montgomery said. “Usually five minutes, I’ve never seen it before and coach Ott said, ‘I went through it one time in Montreal.’ You hesitate to put someone in because if you get a penalty (by the opposition), now it’s 4-on-4, you’re going to use different players. Another penalty happens, you might have a power play, now it’s completely different players. You put in someone like [Jordan] Kyrou because you’re killing for five minutes and all of the sudden, you’re on the power play and now you’re missing one of your weapons. I didn’t want to put [Dalibor] Dvorsky or [Jimmy] Snuggerud in there because of the same reasons because they’re dynamic 4-on-4 players. In the end, I won’t make that mistake again.” Hofer nearly made a critical error on it too. He wanted to keep the puck moving, which would have kept the Blues from going back to 5-on-5, but Broberg made sure he didn’t. “Everybody was yelling,” Hofer said. “I was probably going to (move the puck), but 6 came into the crease so he really didn’t let anything happen there.” * Holloway goal a thing of beauty – Chances were scarce, goalies were up to the task when opportunities knocked, but when Holloway broke the ice late in the second period, all elements had to come together to do it. Robert Thomas stole the puck from Cooley and moved it forward, with Holloway tipping it into the O-zone. There goes Broberg darting in after it, making a beeline line he had multiple times in this game on a middle lane drive – one in which created a penalty – but this time, the defenseman was going up the lefthand side. Holloway jumped into the play as well, calling for the drop pass, got it, and ripped a wrister stick side to the far post at 18:10: “He’s such a good skater,” Holloway said of Broberg. “He’s putting the league on notice how good he can skate. He’s a one-man breakout out there. “‘Tommer’ whipped it far side and I thought I was going to go forecheck again and I saw 6 buzzing up the ice, so I just tried to go for the drop pass and he made a great play. I just shot it on net and was lucky enough for it to go in.” Karel Vejmelka had already made a number of good saves, and it took nearly a perfect shot to beat him in that sequence. “We missed a couple breakaway opportunities too. I loved the [Nick] Bjugstad opportunity on the breakaway, but the goal we scored, great creativity and guys going hard to the net and making a nice finish on the play,” Montgomery said. “I was just trying to get the puck and then he was yelling behind me so I just gave him the puck and he made a very nice shot, so it was nice seeing it go in,” Broberg said. “He wanted the puck. He was yelling for it and I gave it to him and he ended up scoring. It was nice seeing it go in.” * This was personal – For Hofer, there was much more to this than just another game. This was redemption. This was personal. When Utah was last in here Oct. 23, the Mammoth blasted the Blues 7-4. Hofer started that game and didn’t even last eight minutes. It was 7:57 to be exact when Utah scored three times on him on six shots, ending his night. “Sure, yeah, it was personal today,” Hofer said. ‘We mentioned in the room too we owed one to them and to the fans. Tonight felt real good. “I don’t forget that. That was obviously a tough game, but at the same time, you learn a lot from it. It was just nice to get payback.” When the Blues came out of Thanksgiving, the thought here was Hofer would get the start on Friday, and Jordan Binnington to get the Mammoth. “I was fired up,” Hofer said. ‘I knew they were coming a while back. I wasn’t sure if I was getting the start. When I found out that I was, I was stoked for sure.” Hofer only faced eight shots through two periods, but he needed to be sharp in the third with 10 saves and Utah making a push chasing the game. “That’s the fire you want to see in your players,” Montgomery said. “You want to see them be natural competitors like that. I love to hear that it was personal for him. That means he’s coming into the game and his attitude and his mind is fixed on the process and he’s playing in the moment and he wants to get back what he felt wasn’t a good enough game last time.” * Desperation, commitment, urgency shows again – This was the response coaches were looking for. Could the Blues show the urgency in a late-November game that games need to start to matter? Could they build on the momentum of accomplishing a win on Friday overcoming a deficit after two periods for the first time (0-8-1)? It was a resounding yes. “Yeah I saw it for three periods tonight,” Montgomery said. ‘I didn’t love our second period and that was more puck management than anything, not playing to the goal line. We knew in the first period we tired them out and if we can do it for 60 minutes, we thought we could push and extended the lead. Didn’t happen, but I did love the way we dug in the third and managed the puck really well.” “It’s huge,” Holloway said. ‘I think our effort and our intensity has definitely been there these past two games. Obviously playing a back-to-back is tough. You’ve got to dig deep, but they were playing a back-to-back too, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a grind out there and I was proud of our effort tonight.” * Doing it for ‘Flack’ – He played in his 1,000th game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 18, but the Blues honored Justin Faulk with a pregame ceremony on Saturday with a silver stick, a crystal and Rolex watch among the items received with family and friends in attendance. The Blues wore “Flack’ and 1,000 on the backs of their pregame warmup jerseys also and went out and got the job done for the veteran defenseman. “’Flack’ is such a good guy,” Broberg said. ‘When I came here, he was my D-partner for my first season here and he was such a good mentor for me. He was making me feel comfortable on the ice and off the ice as well. I’m very happy for him.” And if you love kids, how can you not love Faulk's three here: Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/314a885b-d959-45b0-a5ce-cab3d35a0887.jpeg] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
