CALGARY — Rookie goaltender Joel Hofer has his first career NHL shutout and his dad will soon have a new souvenir.
Hofer made 27 saves and Oskar Sundqvist paced the offence with a goal and an assist on Thursday night as the St. Louis Blues beat the slumping Calgary Flames 3-0.
Goals two minutes apart in the first period by Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Leddy were all the offence St. Louis (3-2-1) would need on a night in which there would be no other scoring until Sundqvist's empty-net goal with two minutes to go.
“Definitely pretty cool,” said Hofer, a 23-year-old Winnipeg native. “I'm obviously very grateful to be in this position and the guys played really great in front of me and I'm just happy to get the win tonight.”
As for the game puck?
“My dad likes holding on to things like that," he said. "So I'll probably give it to him.”
Hofer enters the season as Jordan Binnington's backup. In his first start, which came a week ago, he gave up six goals at home in a loss to the Arizona Coyotes.
“Obviously it's great for the confidence,” said Hofer, who is now 1-1-0. “I'm just trying to do anything to help the team succeed. I'm just going to try and push the guys in practice and in games and I'm happy with the win.”
His best stop came with four minutes left in the second period when he got his blocker on Walker Duehr's 20-foot wrist shot from the slot on a 3-on-1 rush.
“He was solid,” said Blues coach Craig Berube. “When he had to make saves, he made them. I thought he was aggressive, played the puck really (well). He was dialed in tonight.”
That Duehr chance from Calgary's fourth line was 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.
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.
“I just want to apologize to our fans,” said Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov. “We’re playing (poorly) right now. It’s tough to watch."
Boos cascaded down from the Saddledome crowd throughout the game's final five minutes, culminating at the final buzzer.
“It’s a privilege to play in the NHL, I don’t want anybody to forget that," said Calgary defenceman Mackenzie Weegar. "I think you have 20 guys in here that know it’s a tough league, and you have to earn it. You have to earn to be in this room and be out there. I think we need to remember that."
“As much as you hate hearing the boos, it’s a bit of a wake-up call for us," he added. "We’re not a good enough team right now.”
Rookie Flames head coach Ryan Huska opened the game with a new-look top line with struggling centre Nazem Kadri – with just one assist through the first seven games -- moved to right wing alongside Jonathan Huberdeau and Elias Lindholm.
That arrangement didn't make it past the first period as Huska has yet to find four combinations to his liking this season despite ongoing experiments.
“We weren’t broken, we just sucked,” he said.
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 short-handed goal by Kapanen. After Kadri turned the puck over inside the St. Louis blue line, Sundqvist sprung Kapanen on a breakaway and he fired his first of the season past Markstrom.
“It's my move. There's not much to it. (Sundqvist) made a good play, good pass, and I thought I'd try it out and I'm just happy I got my first,” Kapanen said.
St. Louis doubled its lead two minutes later when Leddy's slapshot from the point deflected in off the leg of Zadorov.
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 26th in the league at 11.5 per cent.
SOLOVYOV DEBUT
Defenceman Ilya Solovyov made his NHL debut for the Flames on a pairing with veteran Chris Tanev.
The 23-year-old was called up Thursday morning from the Calgary Wranglers (AHL). Solovyov was Calgary's seventh-round pick (No. 205 overall) in 2020. He's 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
