When the St. Louis Blues embarked on their current four-game Canadian road trip, they all are against opponents that presented difficult challenges.
The Winnipeg Jets had the Blues’ number as of late, winning five straight against them at Canada Life Centre and 14-2-2 the past 18 overall, but there was a purpose to the Blues’ game on Tuesday.
Jordan Kyrou scored twice, Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway each had a goal and an assist, and Joel Hofer went into his hometown and had a very workmanlike performance in a 4-1 win over the suddenly slumping Jets.
The Blues (12-12-2) improved to 3-0-1 under Jim Montgomery and have outscored opponents 12-3 in the three road games under their new coach while winning a Central Division game for the first time this season (1-4-0) playing their first within the division on the road.
Here are tonight’s three takeaways:
* Blues checked their way to dominant second period — If you just look at the numbers, they say a lot.
The Blues finally took control of the game outscoring Winnipeg 2-0 and outshooting the Jets 19-3 but this was more about just the scores and shots.
It was about leading up to such chances to grab control of the game.
The Blues checked, and checked well. They checked in all three zones and in essence, they didn’t force plays, they won face-offs and transitioned pucks well. Once in the offensive zone, they didn’t allow easy exits and had players come over the top, something Montgomery has preached.
Kyrou broke the dam when he scored at 18:04 after Philip Broberg, who was outstanding again, won a puck along the wall from Mark Scheifele and Dylan DeMelo, springing Kyrou and Brayden Schenn, who was also outstanding, on a 2-on-1, and it was a goal that was coming.
But when Holloway, who has a four-game point streak (four goals, three assists) since Montgomery took over, made it 2-0 just 39 seconds later, it was the epitome of how the Blues dominated a period:
But the Blues checked a puck back, then moved it cleanly through the neutral zone and Thomas finds Holloway cutting through the middle.
The Blues turned a first period in which they were outshot 8-6 into a 25-11 advantage through two.
* Clogging the middle of the ice — The Jets have some high-end skill, and Scheifele, who did score in the third, and Kyle Connor have been Blues killers in the past.
Connor was held to two shots while Scheifele had three but Winnipeg simply could not penetrate the middle of the ice as freely as they would have liked with the Blues committing to clogging the middle and forcing shots from the dots on out.
The Jets had just 23 shots on goal, of which 12 came in the third when they would have to make their push but many were perimeter chances.
* Hofer saves were timely — Hofer getting a start in his hometown was not some sentimental start from Montgomery. He knows he has two good goalies and was confident in his backup, who started in Montgomery’s Blues debut against the New York Rangers.
But Hofer set himself up for a solid game with this beauty of a save on Connor in the first period:
If that shot goes in and the Jets grab an early lead, no telling if there was a way back from that. But he kept himself into it with limited work in the second period and was called on again with a shorthanded breakaway save on Adam Lowry to preserve a 3-0 lead.
Hofer did lose his shutout bid when Scheifele scored with 4:16 remaining but Hofer stayed in control throughout and improved to 5-3-0 on the season.
* Watch and listen to comments from Montgomery and players postgame:
