ST. LOUIS — Jake Neighbours spoke earlier in the day on Thursday that the production from him was coming.
The St. Louis Blues forward came into the game Thursday against the New York Islanders without a point in the first four games and was a minus-5.
Not only did Neighbours get on the scoreboard on Thursday, but he finished off a 1-0 overtime win in emphatic fashion.
Neighbours finished off a redirect of a Philip Broberg saucer pass off a 3-on-1at 2:04 of OT to cap off a tight-knit game at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Neighbours was driving the net on a 3-on-1 rush and redirected a pass from Broberg inside the left post past Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin.
“Just a great read by ‘Hof,'” Neighbours said of goalie Joel Hofer. “He’s so good at playing the puck and obviously he saw we had numbers up the ice and made a great play to ‘Broby.’ I just tried to drive through that d-man. I think ‘Saader’ was off my back side there and ‘Broby’ made a great read and laid one in there for me.”
Hofer had the puck on his stick when he received it back from Pavel Buchnevich as the Blues were making player changes. Hofer saw a chance to get the puck up ice quickly and went off the boards to Broberg.
“I just saw their guy was kind of poaching in a little bit and I saw ‘Broby’ kind of making his way to the o-zone,” Hofer said. “Just trying to bypass the forward was all I was trying to do.”
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It was a well-played, tight game throughout with each team taking turns turning scoring chances into potential goals but each goalie was up to the task.
There was the sense from the get-go that the game itself was going to be low-scoring and a one-goal game.
“We knew from the start they weren’t going to give up much,” Blues defenseman Ryan Suter said of the Islanders. “We knew that we had to defend hard. They’ve got some good players. We stuck with it and outlasted them.”
Hofer, who allowed four goals in a 5-4 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks a week ago Thursday, was much sharper and locked in going against a formidable counterpart at the other end in Sorokin, who was equally as impressive on this night.
“He’s amazing. He’s real fun to watch,” Hofer said of Sorokin. “Those are fun games to be a part of, especially against those kinds of guys on the other side. It was a good to get the win though.”
The Blues (3-2-0) got back to their winning ways by ending a modest two-game slide and were patient throughout in not trying to force things against an Islanders side bent on defending the middle of the ice.
“I’m proud of our group. 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. They played the way the game came to them. They didn’t deviate from what we had to do to have success. As much as it was a great road game for the Islanders, I thought we stayed focused, we stayed on task and they got rewarded at the end.”
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With the assist, Broberg established a Blues record for most consecutive games with a point to begin his career with the team at five games; he has a goal and four assists since singing that two-year, $9.16 million ($4.58 million average annual value) offer sheet that the Edmonton Oilers did not match.
“He’s been great,” Hofer said. “Obviously his offense is there, but most importantly, he’s blocking shots, doing the little things right. We’re getting out of our own zone pretty quick. He’s great for us.”
Suter played alongside Colton Parayko on the Blues’ top defensive pairing Thursday and played 25:10 with three shot attempts, one hit and one blocked shot. He played there in place of Nick Leddy, who missed the game with a lower-body injury.
“It was fun,” Suter said. “Obviously you don’t want anyone to get hurt (Leddy). He’ll be back soon hopefully and just trying to help out.”
