By Canadian Press

Joel Hofer earns first career shutout as Blues blank slumping Flames 3-0

Oct 26, 2023 | 9:58 PM

CALGARY — Oskar Sundqvist had a goal and an assist and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for his first career shutout as the St. Louis Blues blanked the slumping Calgary Flames 3-0 on Thursday night.

First-period goals by Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Leddy were all the offence St. Louis (3-2-1) would need as they evened their record at 1-1-0 on their four-game road trip. Sundqvist added an empty-net goal in the final minute.

Calgary (2-4-1) has lost four games in a row and has been held without a goal on home ice for nearly six periods. The Flames’ only goal in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers came 75 seconds into the first period.

Boos cascaded down from the Saddledome crowd throughout the game’s final five minutes, culminating at the final buzzer.

The memorable night for Hofer comes in his second start of the season and was a nice bounce-back performance after he gave up six goals at home in a loss to the Arizona Coyotes a week ago.

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It was the fifth career NHL win for the Winnipeg native, who is the Blues’ backup goaltender this season behind Jordan Binnington. Hofer was selected by St. Louis in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft.

His best stop came with four minutes left in the second when he got his blocker on Walker Duehr’s 20-foot wrist shot from the slot on a 3-on-1 rush.

That would be one of the few dangerous threats for the listless Flames, who have gone 1-5-1 since winning their season opener and only scored 12 goals over that span.

Jacob Markstrom made 32 stops for the Flames as he fell to 1-4-1. He’s winless in his last five starts and Calgary has only scored six times in those games.

The Blues opened the scoring at 11:23 of the first on a shorthanded goal by Kapanen. After Nazem Kadri turned the puck over inside the St. Louis blue-line, Oskar Sundqvist sprung Kapanen on a breakaway and he fired his first of the season past Markstrom.

St. Louis doubled its lead two minutes later when Leddy’s slapshot from the point deflected in off the leg of Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov.

Rookie Flames head coach Ryan Huska opened the game with a new-look top line with struggling centre Kadri – with just one assist through the first seven games — moved to right wing alongside Jonathan Huberdeau and Elias Lindholm.

But the experiment didn’t make it past the first period with the lines being shuffled again by Huska, who has yet to find four combinations to his liking this season despite ongoing experiments.

Calgary went 0-for-2 on the man advantage while the Blues were 0-for-4.

SHOOTING BLANKS

Entering the night, there were six NHL forwards with more than 20 shots but still looking for their first goal. Two of them are on the Flames – Backlund (22 shots) and Kadri (23 shots) while two others are former Flames – Johnny Gaudreau (27 shots) and Matthew Tkachuk (28 shots).

POWER OUTAGE

After starting the season 3-for-8 on the power play, the Flames have failed to score in their last 18 chances. The skid has dropped Calgary’s man advantage to 23rd in the league entering the game.

SOLOVYOV DEBUT

Defenceman Ilya Solyvyov made his NHL debut for the Flames playing on a pairing with veteran Chris Tanev. 

Called up Thursday morning from the Calgary Wranglers (AHL), the 23-year-old Solyvov was Calgary’s seventh-round pick (No. 205 overall) in 2020. He is the first player from the Flames’ 2020 draft class to appear in an NHL game.

UP NEXT

Blues: Travel to Vancouver to take on the Canucks on Friday.

Flames: Head to Edmonton to take on the Oilers at Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday in the Heritage Classic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2023. 

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press