The St. Louis Blues pulled off a grand heist against the Vegas Golden Knights, shocking them with a late-game winner, 4-3. It was a hard-fought win, and most importantly, a 60-minute win.
Let's go over the three biggest takeaways from the matchup.
Blues' finally found something that has been missing
For much of this season, whenever the Blues would allow the opposition to score first, they would slide right back into their shell and basically turtle the game. There was no pushback, no emphasis on making a comeback of any kind. It would not matter if it was an early allowed goal, or the opposition did what Colorado did and went up 4-0 in the first period.
This game against Vegas was different. After Keegan Kolesar got the Golden Knights on the board, Alexey Toropchenko responded in 19 seconds with a fiery rush down the ice to bat in the game-tying goal. The Blues would put their foot on the gas and not let up, even after Vegas tied it back up at 3 in the third period.
The captain, Brayden Schenn, who recently celebrated the birth of his third child on Thursday, came in clutch to win the game with a big goal against Vegas goaltender Carter Hart. Watch out NHL, the Blues might be onto something here.
Hofer was fantastic, again
After Jordan Binnington faced a firing squad against Colorado, and terrified the entire country of Canada with his recent Olympic nod, Joel Hofer got the start against Vegas. The skill level between Colorado and Vegas is emphatically different, but give the Golden Knights' offense some credit.
Hofer was stable, cool, and collected. He was focused throughout the entirety of the 60-minute affair, and never waivered. This was a fantastic showing from the "backup" goaltender, once again. The official stat line reads 21 saves on 24 shots faced.
Faulk cannot be stopped
Defenseman Justin Faulk continued his historic run, and has not shown signs of slowing down. It is as if Faulk and fellow d-man Colton Parayko have switched places from last year to this year, as Parayko has yet to get a goal on the board following his career-high of 16-goals.
Faulk just notched his team-leading 11th goal of the season, and it was a beauty. His contribution this season has been unmatched, but it is a really big red flag. With a talented group of forwards like Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and the aforementioned Schenn, why is a defenseman leading the team in goals?