Hofer makes 27 saves, gets 1st NHL shutout in Blues win against Flames

CALGARY -- Joel Hofer made 27 saves for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-0 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.

It was Hofer's first NHL shutout in his 10th start.

"Definitely pretty cool," Hofer said. "I'm obviously very grateful to be in this position and the guys played really great in front of me, and I'm just happy to get the win tonight."

Oskar Sundqvist had a goal and an assist, and Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Leddy each scored for the Blues (3-2-1), who have won two of three.

"Right from the get-go in the game, I liked the way we were moving and skating and playing," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "Our forecheck, we established that right away, we talked about that, and our cycle game, it was good."

Jacob Markstrom made 32 saves for the Flames (2-5-1), who have lost four in a row and six of seven heading into the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic against the Edmonton Oilers at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TBS, Max).

"Everybody's sick of losing for sure," Calgary defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. "I don't want to lose four in a row. It's still early in the season. We can fix that stuff. I believe in this team. I think we have a really good team, really good skill players. I think we can get out of it. Just embarrassing in front of our fans tonight, for sure."

Kapanen gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 11:23 of the first period with a short-handed goal. He shot over Markstrom's glove on a breakaway after Sundqvist picked up a Nazem Kadri turnover in the offensive zone.

"It's my move. There's not much to it," Kapanen said. "(Sundqvist) made a good play, good pass, and I thought I'd try it out and I'm just happy I got my first."

Leddy extended the lead to 2-0 at 13:24 when his shot through traffic deflected off Zadorov's leg and beat Markstrom.

Hofer made a blocker save on Walker Duehr's wrist shot from the slot at 16:12 of the second period, and he also stopped Yegor Sharangovich's shot from the slot at 16:30 of the third period.

"He was solid," Berube said. "When he had to make saves, he made them. I thought he was aggressive, played the puck really well. He was dialed in tonight."

Sundqvist scored his first of the season into an empty net with 2:07 remaining for the 3-0 final.

"I know we've got compete and we've got work ethic," Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. "Tonight, it almost felt like in the third period they almost broke our will. You've got one thing and it's pride and I think they broke our will tonight and you could kind of tell in the third period we couldn't get anything going, but you've got to keep your head high in this league. If you keep banging your head, you keep hanging your head, it's just going to make it worse and things are going to spiral. You've got to get back to it. It's a new day tomorrow."

NOTES: Hofer is the third-youngest goaltender to post a shutout with the Blues behind Yves Belanger (22, 162 on March 11, 1975) and Jake Allen (22, 219 on March 14, 2013). ... The Flames have scored two or fewer goals in six of eight games, and have not surrendered fewer than three goals in any game this season. ... Calgary has been outscored 15-4 during its four-game losing streak. ... The Flames' last goal came 1:15 into the first period of a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday. ... Blues forward Robert Thomas had a game-high six shots on goal.