Holloway's lone goal lifts Blues past Mammoth

ST. LOUIS -- Dylan Holloway scored the lone goal, and Joel Hofer made 18 saves for the St. Louis Blues in a 1-0 win against the Utah Mammoth at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

The shutout was Hofer's second of the season for the Blues (9-10-7), who were coming off a 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators on Friday.

“It’s huge,” Holloway said. “I think our effort and our intensity has definitely been there these past two games. Obviously, playing a back to back is tough. You’ve got to dig deep, but they were playing a back to back, too, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a grind out there and I was proud of our effort tonight.”

Hofer's shutout came after he was pulled just 7:57 into the first period when the teams last faced off on Oct. 23, when he allowed three goals on six shots in the Blues' 7-4 loss.

“Sure, yeah, it was personal today,” Hofer said. "We mentioned it in the room, too. We owed one to them and to the fans. Tonight felt real good.”

Karel Vejmelka made 18 saves for the Mammoth (12-11-3), who were coming off a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday that began a season-long six-game road trip.

"We didn’t get the result we wanted,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think we had a slow start, but we got a little better afterward.

“We had too many mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers.”

Prior to the game, the Blues held a moment of silence for Utah captain Clayton Keller’s father, Bryan, who passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on Thursday.

Keller, who was born in nearby Chesterfield, Missouri, but was raised in Swansea, Illinois, was overcome with emotion.

“First off, the coaching staff, the management has been unbelievable,” Keller said. “It’s beyond words.

“For me and my family, a big thanks to the Blues for everything they did tonight. They didn’t have to do that.”

On Friday, Dallas named Keller the first star of the game.

“It definitely has been a tough couple of days,” Keller said. “I couldn’t have done it without my family and my teammates. They had my back always.

“There’s lots of memories at this rink. I remember growing up and coming to games here, sitting on my dad’s lap and my grandpa’s lap. I admired those players and wanting to be out there.”

Holloway broke the ice to put the Blues ahead 1-0 at 18:10 of the second period. He took Philip Broberg’s drop pass in the left circle and beat Vejmelka high to the right corner.

“He’s such a good skater,” Holloway said of Broberg. “He’s putting the League on notice with how good he can skate. He’s a one-man breakout out there. [Robert Thomas] whipped it far side, and I thought I was going to go forecheck again and I saw (No.) 6 buzzing up the ice, so I just tried to go for the drop pass and he made a great play. I just shot it on net and was lucky enough for it to go in.”

Utah forward Logan Cooley sustained an apparent lower-body injury at 6:17 of the third period after a knee-on-knee collision with Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko. Toropchenko was assessed a major for kneeing and a game misconduct on the play.

However, the Blues killed the major penalty, allowing just three shots while blocking four and generating one of their own, a Nick Bjugstad breakaway at 7:49.

“I just think everybody’s really committed, they’re running really good lines,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought that we won face-offs that really mattered and we cleared pucks 200 feet. Excellent job by our penalty killers, and whenever the puck came to ‘Hof,’ he made the saves."

NOTES: Tourigny had no update on Cooley after the game. … The Mammoth were shut out for the first time this season. … Holloway has five goals in his past 11 games after scoring just two in his first 15 games of the season.