Blues come back in third period to beat Predators, 3-2, extend win streak to eight games

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Mar 27, 2025

Published in Hockey

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Blues knew it would be hard to beat the same team three times in 10 days.

They did it anyway.

The Blues extended their win streak to eight games with a 3-2 win over the Predators on Thursday night, sweeping the season series from Nashville.

Dylan Holloway scored the game-winning goal for the Blues with 7:41 remaining in the third period, just 22 seconds after Cam Fowler tied the game at 2 with a goal of his own. Holloway had two goals on the evening to lead the Blues.

With the win, the Blues kept pace with the Wild for the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, remaining two points behind Minnesota though the Wild has a game in hand on St. Louis. For the moment, the Blues pulled five points up on Vancouver and six points ahead of Calgary for the second wild-card spot, pending the Flames' result vs. Dallas on Thursday night, though the Canucks and Flames have games in hand on the Blues.

The Blues beat Nashville twice since last Tuesday by identical 4-1 scores. Thursday provided a closer affair.

The Blues will finish their quick two-game road trip with a date in Colorado on Saturday afternoon.

Not used to this

During their seven-game win streak coming into Nashville, the Blues were rarely behind. In fact, they'd only trailed for 2:53 during the entire streak, a third-period deficit vs. Vancouver that was short-lived. Throughout the streak, the Blues scored the game's first goal.

That changed on Thursday night when Fedor Svechkov scored just 2:48 into the first period. Svechkov camped out at the hashmarks and hammered a pass from Michael Bunting past Joel Hofer.

The Blues fell behind 2-0 when Brady Skjei struck on the power play at 10:16 of the first period. With Ryan Suter in the box for slashing, the Blues had a chance to clear the puck, but Radek Faksa whiffed on a bouncing puck. It stayed in, and Skjei used traffic at the net-front to find the back of the net.

By allowing two goals in the first 10-plus minutes of the game, Hofer allowed more than one goal in a start for the first time in three weeks. In his previous three starts at Minnesota, at Nashville and vs. Chicago, Hofer surrendered just one goal in each game.

St. Louis mustered just three shots on goal in the first period, which was tied for their fewest shots in a first period all game.

Holloway stays hot

Holloway extended his point streak to nine games by scoring at 10:35 of the second period to cut the Predators lead to 2-1. After disrupting a play in the neutral zone, Holloway got the puck back from Robert Thomas and slipped a shot through Juuse Saros.

With his two goals on Thursday, Holloway has six goals and nine assists during his point streak, and is up to 26 goals this season.

The goal was one of the few offensive opportunities for the Blues on Thursday night as the Predators smothered St. Louis with sticks in shooting lanes.

At the end of the first period, the Blues had 10 shot attempts, and six were blocked by the Predators. At the end of the second period, 15 of the Blues' 27 shot attempts were blocked by the Predators.

Through two periods, the two teams combined for 23 total shots on goal, the second-fewest this Blues season through 40 minutes.

Rough stuff continues

The Blues and Predators just don't get along well this season. After three fights in the last 10 days, the teams added another on Thursday night when Tyler Tucker fought Andreas Englund. Englund hit Jake Neighbours into the boards in front of the Predators bench, drawing the response from Tucker.

In the last two meetings (March 18 in Nashville and Sunday in St. Louis), there were multiple big hits that resulted in fights. Neighbours fought Michael McCarron for his hit on Pavel Buchnevich. Cole Smith fought Tucker for his hit on Luke Evangelista. Nathan Walker and Zachary L'Heureux fought each other after jousting on the boards.

Zack Bolduc even earned a fine for cross-checking Nick Blankenburg after Blankenburg attempted a big open-ice hit on Robert Thomas on Sunday.