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Game Recap

Hofer Stands Tall as Blues Special Teams Sink Bruins 4-1

By Soapz · Oct 29, 2026

Final score graphic: Bruins 1, Blues 4
Final: Bruins 1, Blues 4. Causeway Gazette graphic

Boston outshot St. Louis 32-18 at Enterprise Center on Thursday night, but Joel Hofer stopped 31 shots and the Blues went 2-for-3 on the power play.

Some nights the box score tells you exactly how annoying a game was. This was one of them. The Bruins put 32 shots on Joel Hofer, gave up only 18, won 35 of 63 faceoffs and threw 29 hits. They still flew out of St. Louis with a 4-1 loss, because Hofer was a wall and the Blues cashed in on special teams.

It started the right way. James Hagens opened the scoring 5:28 into the first period at even strength, his fifth goal of the season, with Casey Mittelstadt picking up his fourth assist. Boston was dictating, and for about ten minutes it felt like the Bruins were going to bury the Blues early.

Then the penalties showed up. Charlie McAvoy went off for interference at 15:39 of the first, and four seconds later Jimmy Snuggerud tied it on the power play. That was his seventh of the year, set up by Philip Broberg and Robert Thomas.

The second period belonged to St. Louis. Broberg put the Blues ahead 2-1 at 5:17, with Cam McMichael and Dylan Holloway assisting. Thomas made it 3-1 at 12:08, assisted by Justin Barron. In between, the Bruins got a power play when Thomas went off for tripping at 9:14 and couldn't solve Hofer.

Boston kept pushing in the third and got another look when Hofer himself was called for tripping at 8:50. Nothing doing. Morgan Geekie was then whistled for tripping at 12:36, and six seconds later Jake Neighbours scored on the power play to make it 4-1, with Broberg and Thomas assisting again.

Jeremy Swayman made 14 saves on 18 shots and took the loss. The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Blues went 2-for-3. Thomas (1G, 2A), Hofer (31 saves) and Broberg (1G, 2A) were the three stars.

Boston drops to 9-4-1 and comes home to host Chicago on Saturday. St. Louis is now 6-6-1.

Three takeaways

  1. The kid keeps scoring. Hagens has five goals and is driving offense with Mittelstadt.
  2. Discipline cost them. Three Bruins penalties turned into two Blues power-play goals, and both of them came within seconds of the call.
  3. The process was there. Boston outshot St. Louis 32-18, won 55.6% of the draws and outhit the Blues 29-15. Hofer just stole one. Bank the effort and clean up the penalty kill before the Blackhawks come to town.

Sources

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