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Joel Hofer's shutout guides Blues past Jets, 1-0

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on

Published in Hockey

ST. LOUIS — It seems the Winnipeg Jets still can't beat the Blues in St. Louis.

In their first meeting against Winnipeg since their loss in the first round in the spring, the Blues beat the Jets 1-0 Wednesday night at Enterprise Center. Justin Faulk scored the lone goal for the Blues as Joel Hofer posted his third shutout of the season.

The win continued the Blues' streak at home against the Jets, as St. Louis won all three playoff home games in the first round before falling in Game 7 in Winnipeg.

The Blues will finish their four-game home stand on Thursday night against the Rangers.

Close but no goal

The Blues ended the first period tied 0-0, but they had to be happy with how they played in the opening 20 minutes. Winnipeg had the first shot of the game, but the Blues ripped off the next 11 on goal.

That flurry included one of the best shift to shift sequences of the season for the Blues.

Pavel Buchnevich set up Robert Thomas in the slot, and his shot rang the far post at 8:39. Then Thomas served one up for Buchnevich, who rang the crossbar 15 seconds after Thomas dented the post. That pressure gave way to the next line, as Pius Suter, Dalibor Dvorsky and Jonatan Berggren kept the puck in the Winnipeg end for almost a minute.

Suter had a handful of chances at the side of the net. Berggren found Logan Mailloux sneaking down the weakside, but his attempt was stopped by Connor Hellebuyck. The Jets gave up seven shots in 23 seconds before icing the puck.

By the time Winnipeg exited the zone following the ensuing faceoff, their top line of Gabriel Vilardi, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor were on the ice for about 2 1/2 minutes.

The Jets finished the first period with the last five shots on goal, but three of them came on the power play after Faulk was called for interference.

Climbing the leaderboard

In the second period, Faulk scored his eight goal of the season, which tied him for the team lead.

 

With 6:43 remaining in the period, Faulk finished off a play that started with Buchnevich. Buchnevich dumped the puck into the corner at the red line, and then chased down Dylan DeMelo. DeMelo turned the puck over to Thomas, who found Faulk darting into the offensive zone.

Faulk beat Hellebuyck over his shoulder on the blocker side to give him five points in the last six games.

Faulk's goal probably wasn't even the Blues' best scoring chance of the second period.

That might have belonged to Brayden Schenn, who took an on-target stretch pass from Philip Broberg for a partial breakaway with about 9 1/2 minutes left in the period. But Schenn was denied what would have been his third goal in the last six games.

Or it might have belonged to Suter, who had the puck roll off his stick and wide of the net with 3:14 remaining in the period. Suter took a puck on his backhand from in front of the net to the side of the net, far enough to displace Hellebuyck from his position and create an opening. But he couldn't finish into the vacant cage.

Fabbri up

Blues forward Robby Fabbri received top-line duty on Wednesday night, the latest move as his responsibility has steadily increased since signing with the Blues last week.

Fabbri skated with Thomas and Buchnevich, and largely matched up against the Scheifele line for the Jets.

"He's been good at booth ends of the ice," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of Fabbri before the game. "He's been physical. ... He's done a lot of little things. Real intelligent hockey player. We just think his support play can help that first line. We're trying to balance out having two veterans on each line, it gets a little difficult right now with the forward group."

Fabbri, though, saw limited ice time in the third period as the Blues were protecting a one-goal lead.

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