Hofer Holds the Fort as Blues Bury Vegas 6-2
St. Louis 6, Vegas 2 looks like a runaway, but the Golden Knights had more of the puck and slightly better looks. Vegas outattempted the Blues 63-52. Their expected goals, a measure of how many goals their chances were worth, came to 2.98 against 2.75 for St. Louis. On chances alone, this was close to a coin flip.
The gap opened at both ends. Joel Hofer stopped 27 of 29 shots, including 11 of 13 high-danger chances, so Vegas's pushes went nowhere. The Blues also made the most of their only two power plays, scoring on both. Vegas never got one.
Justin Barron had a goal and three assists. Dylan Holloway added two goals and an assist.
The score could have been even wider. The posts rang three times, with Pius Suter and Jimmy Snuggerud hitting iron for St. Louis and Braeden Bowman doing the same for Vegas. The bounces mostly went the Blues' way, and Hofer made sure Vegas couldn't take advantage of the ones that didn't.
