Joel Hofer's first shutout sends Blues past Flames

Oskar Sundqvist collected a goal and an assist and goaltender Joel Hofer recorded his first career shutout as the visiting St. Louis Blues beat the struggling Calgary Flames 3-0 on Thursday.

Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Leddy also scored for the Blues, who have been on a lose-one, win-one run since the season began.

Hofer, the St. Louis backup goaltender, made 26 saves for the victory in his second game of the season, the 10th of his NHL career. His best stop when the game was on the line came in the early going when he denied Walker Duehr on a golden chance.

Jacob Markstrom produced 32 stops for the Flames but received virtually no support as his team dropped a fourth consecutive clash. Calgary has one victory in its past seven outings (1-5-1).

The Flames, who have scored only four goals total in their past four outings, left the ice to a chorus of boos from the local faithful.

The Blues, who have struggled to score as well early this season, received an early boost when Kapanen netted a short-handed goal at 11:23 of the first period. Sundqvist took advantage of a Nazem Kadri turnover and sent Kapanen on a breakaway that resulted in Kapanen's first of the season.

Leddy's lucky bounce doubled the Blues' edge two minutes later. His long point shot ricocheted off the leg of Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov and into the cage for his first of the campaign.

Sundqvist added an empty-net goal with 2:07 remaining in regulation, his first tally of the season.

The Flames mounted very little of a comeback. They managed only four shots on goal in the second period and only a couple of legitimate scoring chances before the game was out of reach.

In fact, had it not been for Markstrom, the result would have been much worse. He delivered a couple of stops on Jordan Kyrou, including a first-period breakaway, to keep his team in the game.

The Flames summoned defenseman Ilya Solvyov from the minors, and the 2020 seventh-round draft choice made his NHL debut.