Blues stymie Stars 3-1 to earn first home win of the season

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct 18, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Before the St. Louis Blues' 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night, Blues coach Jim Montgomery was pretty straightforward about what he wanted from his team later that day.

"I'm hoping to see more of a competitive spirit by our team," Montgomery said. "Our fans deserve better than what we've shown at home so far, and we've got to show a lot more fight to be able to have more success at home, and to have more success in the standings."

For one night, mission accomplished.

The Blues smothered the Stars and picked up their first home win of the season on Saturday night, bouncing back from an 8-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.

Jordan Kyrou, Jimmy Snuggerud and Pius Suter (empty-net) scored for the Blues, while Jordan Binnington made 17 saves. Mikko Rantanen spoiled the shutout bid with 2:18 left in the third period, but Suter quickly followed by battling for a puck at the blue line and sliding it into the vacated Stars net.

The Blues will host the Kings on Tuesday night in the third game of a four-game home stand.

Kyrou gets his first

Kyrou gave the Blues their first lead at home just 2:27 into the second period when he beat Jake Oettinger to put the Blues up 1-0.

Kyrou began the play by breaking up a Dallas play in the neutral zone, then entered the offensive zone with speed. He hung on to the puck long enough to sweep it down the wall to Brayden Schenn, who found Kyrou in the middle of the ice. Kyrou opened his body enough to feign a one-timer, but then collected the puck and carried it to the hashmarks before beating Oettinger on the glove side.

While Kyrou had not scored in the first four games of the season, he did pick up points in each of the last two games, including a primary assist in Vancouver where he held the puck for a trailing Schenn to hammer.

The lead was a welcome one for St. Louis, which lost their opening two home games by a combined score of 13-3.

Tucker gets offensive

Snuggerud extended the Blues lead with 6:08 remaining in the second period by cleaning up Pavel Buchnevich's rebound in the crease behind Oettinger. The opportunity was created by defenseman Tyler Tucker filling the middle lane and taking Stars defenseman Alex Petrovic to the net.

That created space for Buchnevich's initial bid, and of course, for Snuggerud's follow up.

Tucker picked up the secondary assist on the play thanks to his jump into the rush that led to the 3-on-2 rush chance. It was Tucker's third point of the season following an assist in Calgary last week and a goal against Chicago on Wednesday.

Montgomery has long complimented Tucker's offensive instincts, though he's largely been cast in a defensive role on the third pairing and the penalty kill. Tucker's career-high in points is seven set a season ago.

Snuggerud, meanwhile, scored his third goal of the season. He scored twice in Vancouver on Monday and trails only Jake Neighbours (four goals) for the team lead.

Locking it down

Three days after the Blues were blitzed by eight Blackhawks goals, they responded with a strong defensive effort against the Central Division power Dallas.

St. Louis held Dallas to six shots in the first period, and five shots in the second period. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blues allowed less than one expected goal in the opening 40 minutes.

Dallas hardly generated high-danger chances against the Blues. There was Jason Robertson's breakaway in the second period, and Mikko Rantanen's one-timer on the power play, and Wyatt Johnston's chance from the slot in the third period, but the Stars were rarely dangerous otherwise.

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