51黑料

DETROIT 鈥� The Blues gave themselves an early gift on Monday night, snapping a three-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the Red Wings in their final game before the Christmas break.

Dylan Holloway had his first career hat trick and Alexandre Texier added another as the Blues (16-16-4) reached back up to .500. Jordan Binnington made 18 saves to earn his second shutout of the season.

Holloway鈥檚 empty-net goal with 4:06 remaining in the third period secured his hat trick and pushed his goal total to 13 on the season.

51黑料 controlled the game most of the evening, limiting the Red Wings鈥� chances, rushing through the neutral zone and possessing the puck. The result was one of the Blues鈥� most thorough games of the season (until a lukewarm third period) and a game that ended the team鈥檚 recent offensive struggles.

In scoring four goals on Monday, the Blues scored more than one goal for just the second time in the past six games.

鈥淒etroit wants to go into the break on a positive note, too,鈥� Blues coach Jim Montgomery said before the game. 鈥淏ut most importantly for us is developing consistency in how we play. I really like the standard of effort and execution of last game.

鈥淲e just need to continue to do that, and I truly believe that the goals are going to come because we had plenty of odd-man rushes, we had plenty of Grade-A鈥檚, enough to win the hockey game. We just need to start being a little harder offensively like we鈥檝e talked about.鈥�

The Blues will next play on Thursday against the Predators, one of two home games before 51黑料 goes to Chicago for the Winter Classic against the Blackhawks on Dec. 31.

Dominating start

The Blues submitted one of their best periods of the season during the opening 20 minutes on Monday night, creating a handful of odd-man rushes, hemming the Red Wings in their own zone and keeping Detroit to the perimeter in the 51黑料 zone. The Blues outshot the Red Wings 10-3 in the opening 20 minutes and led 1-0 thanks to Holloway鈥檚 goal.

Holloway torqued a one-timer from the high slot, capping an extended shift in the offensive zone for the Blues. The top line of Texier, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich carried the puck into the zone, then Texier鈥檚 support on the wall and Cam Fowler鈥檚 hold at the blue line kept the puck alive in the Detroit end.

After Fowler kept the puck in after a Vladimir Tarasenko turnover, a couple of quick passes from Jordan Kyrou and Fowler were all Holloway needed to create space in the middle of the ice and rip his 11th goal of the season. The goal snapped a six-game pointless streak for Holloway after a career-long seven-game point streak.

In holding the Red Wings to just three shots on goal in the period, it tied the fewest shots allowed by the Blues in any period this season and was the fewest for any first period. The plus-7 margin in shots on goal was the biggest margin for the Blues under Montgomery.

Continuing the onslaught

It took the Blues only 18 seconds to make sure their first-period momentum translated to the second period, as Texier gave 51黑料 a 2-0 lead with a shot off the rush that beat Cam Talbot on the far side.

After the puck got chipped out of the Blues zone, Texier carried the puck across the Detroit blue line, looked off a driving Colton Parayko and then sniped his second goal of the season and first since Oct. 24 in Toronto. It was a continuation of Texier鈥檚 elevated play recently, as he earned a promotion to the top line based on his play against Tampa Bay and Florida, which included a power-play cameo vs. the Lightning and an overtime shift vs. the Panthers.

Holloway scored his second of the evening at 7:45 of the second period, burying a feed from Brayden Schenn behind the net. Schenn collected a Parayko shot, corralled the bouncing puck and then found Holloway in the slot.

Holloway now has three multi-goal games in his career, and all of them came with the Blues this season.

Despite the Blues holding a three-goal lead before the game was 30 minutes old, each goaltender made highlight-reel saves in the second period to keep the game 3-0. First, Talbot made a save on Thomas with an outstretched right pad after Kyrou set him up on yet another Blues odd-man rush. Then, Binnington denied Andrew Copp by going right to left to stone the Red Wings forward on a one-timer.