Joel Hofer gives up seven goals as Blackhawks beat Blues, 8-3

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct 16, 2025

Published in Hockey

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The good feelings from a perfect Blues road trip dissipated on Wednesday night with a 8-3 thumping against the Blackhawks at Enterprise Center.

The eight goals allowed were the most by the Blues at home since an 8-1 loss to Washington last year.

Joel Hofer allowed seven goals while Jordan Binnington yielded one. Jake Neighbours, Dylan Holloway and Tyler Tucker each scored for the Blues.

Lukas Reichel paced the Blackhawks with two goals, while Alex Vlasic and Connor Bedard each had three assists.

The Blues (2-2-0) continue their four-game home stand on Saturday against the Stars.

Hofer’s rough night

Hofer’s difficult evening began early with Ilya Mikheyev’s goal at 3:02 of the first period. Hofer played a puck behind the net and attempted to break it out up the middle with a pass to Pavel Buchnevich, but the puck was too far in front of Buchnevich, and landed on Mikheyev’s stick. Mikheyev quickly put it in the back of the net to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.

After Neighbours tied the game at 1 on a rebound in front of the net at 4:29, another Hofer error gave the Blackhawks back the lead. Lukas Reichel’s innocent-looking shot from the left wing snuck through Hofer for a leaky goal against.

Even before the first television timeout of the game, Hofer was shaky again, when a Connor Bedard shot hit him in the chest and dropped into the crease. It sat there momentarily before Hofer located it and covered it to get the stoppage.

Hofer appeared to bounce back later in the period when he stopped Tyler Bertuzzi on a breakaway and then me made a right pad save on Reichel’s foray to the net.

Hofer allowed two more goals – to Reichel after Logan Mailloux’s turnover behind the net at 2:49 and to Frank Nazar on the rush at 4:32 – on four second-period shots. The Blues removed Hofer with 12:51 remaining in the second period at the first TV timeout, then re-inserted him to start the third period.

But 1:17 into the third, Hofer surrendered another. Ryan Donato stuffed a loose puck in the crease that laid just outside Hofer’s right pad to push the Chicago edge to 6-2.

The Blackhawks put another on Hofer’s ledger at 5:03 of the third period with Teuvo Teravainen’s power-play goal.

Jordan Binnington didn’t fare much better, as he allowed a goal on Jason Dickinson’s harmless shot from the right wing about midway through the second period.

Hofer was pulled twice last season, most recently when he allowed three goals in the first period in Dallas on March 2.

Neighbours scores again

Neighbours scored his fourth goal of the season on Wednesday night, as he was sprung on a 2 on 1 with Buchnevich by Colton Parayko. Neighbourss found Buchnevich driving the back post, and then cleaned up the rebound in the crease.

Neighbours scored twice on Saturday in Calgary, then added an empty-net goal on Monday in Vancouver.

He found himself on the wrong end of a goal when Nazar sped around him in transition. Neighbours was trying to cover for Mailloux, who lost a board battle with Bertuzzi to spring Nazar with speed through the neutral zone. Even though Philip Broberg was back on defense, Neighbours was left to try to slow down Nazar.

When Nazar bowled into Hofer after scoring, Neighbours put him in a headlock and set off a brouhaha after the whistle. Neighbours was given two minutes for roughing.

Holloway gets first

Holloway didn’t score in the first three games of the season, which led to coach Jim Montgomery saying that Holloway and linemate Jordan Kyrou were “pressing.” Holloway changed that with 5:06 left in the first period.

Holloway helped cause a turnover in the neutral zone, then raced around the edge to create enough space to wire a shot past Arvid Soderblom. Minutes later, Holloway followed up his goal with a big hit on Sam Rinzel in the corner.

Last season, during Holloway’s first in St. Louis, Holloway had 26 goals and 37 assists.