Joel Hofer pitches shutout as Blues stay hot, down Capitals

Joel Hofer made 21 saves and the Blues defeated the Washington Capitals 3-0 in St. Louis on Tuesday.

It was Hofer's sixth shutout of the season and the eighth of his career.

Jimmy Snuggerud, Ott Stenberg and Jordan Kyrou scored for the Blues (29-30-11, 69 points), who have points in 10 of 11 (8-1-2). St. Louis, opening a three-game homestand, remains on the fringe of the Western Conference wild card race.

Washington (35-28-9, 79 points) opened a three-game road trip and entered the game on a five-game point streak (3-0-2). The Capitals ended the night six points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Logan Thompson made 24 saves.

The Capitals have scored two goals or less in each of their past six road games.

St. Louis was 0-for-3 on the power play; Washington went 0-for-2.

Washington outshot St. Louis 8-4 in a scoreless first period.

Snuggerud gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 2:39 of the second period. Logan Mailloux sent a cross-ice pass to Snuggerud, whose one-timer from the left face-off dot deflected off the near post and in.

Capitals forward Pierre-Luc Dubois received a five-minute match penalty for "attempting to injure" Blues forward Robert Thomas when he threw him to the ice at 8:25 of the third period. Thomas, who appeared to initiate the contact, received an interference minor and left the game.

Stenberg made it 2-0 at 14:52 when he finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence. Dalibor Dvorsky took a pass along the right wall, skated into the circle and passed across the ice to Jonatan Berggren, who fed Stenberg for the tip-in at the right post.

The Capitals pulled Thompson with about 2:30 remaining and Kyrou got behind the defense and slid the puck home for an empty net goal with 41 seconds remaining for the 3-0 final.