About two minutes of overtime had melted off the clock in the Blues' eventual 1-0 overtime win over the Islanders on Thursday night, and Joel Hofer had the puck right where he's comfortable with it.
On his stick.
The Blues goaltender handled the puck between the hashmarks in his own zone, surveying the ice and trying to pick out a pass that could help win the game for St. Louis. He found one.
It was a geometrically technical bank pass around Islanders forward Anthony Duclair and under hopping linesman Steve Barton that gravitated to Philip Broberg at the red line. Broberg needed a swivel of his hips and a few strides to pick out a driving Jake Neighbours, who redirected a levitating sauce pass from Broberg for the game-winner.
"I just saw how their guy was poaching in a little bit," Hofer said. "I saw Broby making his way to the o-zone. Just trying to bypass the forward, that's really all I'm trying to do."
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Hofer's assist on the game-winning goal capped a remarkable night for the second-year goalie, who stopped 34 shots on the way to his second career shutout. Hofer submitted the 10th game in Blues franchise history with a shutout and an assist, and the first since Jake Allen on Feb. 5, 2015. Only two of those goalies assisted on the game-winning goal, and both helpers by Jaroslav Halak (March 23, 2013) and Jacques Plante (March 24, 1970) came in the first period of multi-goal wins.
Hofer is the only goaltender in NHL history to record a shutout and also assist on the only goal of the game. There are now 155 instances of the shutout and assist combination, but none occurred in one-goal games until Thursday night.
"He likes his cookies just as much as players do," Neighbours said. "He's always looking to send some guys in on odd-man rushes."
Hofer is one of the most active goaltenders in the league when it comes to playing the puck.
He's active in jumping behind the net to corral hard rims. He's ready to find teammates wherever they are on the ice, even if it means hitting them in stride as they cross in front of his own net -- which happened on Thursday night in the first period. He scored a goal in the AHL playoffs a few years ago, and hit both posts in the same game in 2023, too.
The one thing that could stop him on Thursday night was a pesky stanchion in the corner by the Zamboni door that twice spit the puck from the glass in front of the net in the game's first five minutes. Hofer proceeded cautiously in that corner after that.
"It makes it easier for the D and as a whole, for the forwards," Blues coach Drew Bannister said. "It's just an extra player on the ice who can get out and move pucks. It breaks down the other team's forecheck at times. If they take the D away, the middle is open. If they take the middle away, the D are open. Just bypass the pressure."
When the Islanders were able to apply pressure, Hofer was there to deny them.
He got some help from a pair of posts that turned away Bo Horvat twice in 11 seconds. Colton Parayko saved a would-be goal in the third period by sweeping the puck off the goalline. But Hofer made every other save.
"Unbelievable," Neighbours said. "He's so locked in, and just his routine on gamedays, on practice days, how he approaches every day at the rink. It's fun to watch him. He's really locked in and he wants to be the best he can be. There's no surprises there with how he played today. He was outstanding and nice little apple at the end for him to top it off."
Blues defenseman Ryan Suter: "He was great. They were throwing a lot of pucks at the net from everywhere. He was all over the place and keeping it out of the net."
Even before Hofer's assist (and Broberg's assist and Neighbours' goal), the Blues made a pair of smart plays in overtime. When Hofer snared Jean-Gabriel Pageau's shot from the dot with his glove, he released it to teammate Brayden Schenn. Instead of risking a faceoff in his own zone, Hofer kept the puck moving and in the Blues' possession.
Then, with Schenn, Justin Faulk and himself at the end of the shift, Pavel Buchnevich passed the puck from his own bench back to Hofer to get a change and, again, maintain possession. After the game, Bannister praised his group's awareness in that overtime situation.
"I thought I stayed present throughout the game, had a lot of fun," Hofer said. "Those are fun games to be a part of, those tight games against a good team. It's huge to get those two points."
The win moved the Blues to 3-2-0 on the season and put them back in the win column after losses to Vegas on Friday and Minnesota on Tuesday night. Hofer has now won both games he's started, as he earned a victory in the Blues' comeback win in San Jose last week.
The Blues are now 2-0 in overtime this season, and Neighbours scored his seventh game-winning goal, which is fifth in franchise history for players before turning 23.
"I thought we showed a lot of maturity," Bannister said. "That's a game where you can get frustrated in and our guys just stuck with it and they played the game the way it came to them. They didn't deviate from what we had to do to have success."
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