Joel Hofer made 32 saves to help the St. Louis Blues to a 5-3 win against the host Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, Jordan Kyrou, Cam Fowler and Dalibor Dvorsky scored for the Blues (34-33-12, 80 points).
Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, Ryan Greene added a goal and Arvid Soderblom made 23 saves for the Blackhawks (28-38-14, 70 points).
Snuggerud gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 9:26 of the first period. Tyler Tucker retrieved the puck in the corner and quickly dished a centering feed to Snuggerud in front for the redirect by Soderblom’s right skate.
Greene tied it at 15:07. Connor Bedard gathered a loose puck in the corner and pushed it toward Greene, who was at the top edge of the right circle for a snap shot that beat Hofer blocker side.
Soon after Soderblom came up with a big stop on defenseman Logan Mailloux early in the second, Mikheyev put Chicago ahead 2-1. He took a diagonal cross-ice feed from rookie center Sacha Boisvert down the middle and fired a wrist shot from the left circle at 3:04.
Toropchenko scored on a breakaway just over a minute later to pull the Blues even. After breaking up a Blackhawks pass attempt, he sent the puck for Toropchenko in the neutral zone, and the forward took off and lifted a backhand by Soderblom glove side at 4:10.
Kyrou made it 3-2 St. Louis on the power play at 12:06. Mailloux rimmed the puck along the boards from the right point, with Kyrou collecting it by the left wall. He skated into the circle and wired a wrist shot that went bar down.
Fowler pushed the lead to 4-2 when he received a pass from Jonatan Berggren in stride and drove to the net before putting it into the top left corner at 17:20.
Dvorsky snapped a one-timer from the right circle to extend it to 5-2 at 7:04.
With Hofer at the right of the crease, Mikheyev made quick work of a feed from Tyler Bertuzzi from the low slot to narrow it to 5-3 at 13:35.
–Field Level Media
