Holloway has hat trick, assist in return, Blues defeat Kraken

ST. LOUIS -- Dylan Holloway scored his second NHL hat trick and had an assist for the St. Louis Blues in a 5-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Holloway had missed 23 of the previous 24 games, including eight straight, with a right high ankle sprain.

“Definitely healthier than when I tried to come back against Edmonton,” Holloway said of a a 5-0 loss on Jan. 18. “The ankle injury’s kind of a tough one to come back from, but it feels great now and just hoping to stay healthy the rest of the way here.

“It definitely feels good. Being out like that, it feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, especially getting reinjured. It’s tough watching. You want to be helping the team, being with the boys. It was great just to be back. I just wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, if I didn’t have an impact now, I’m just grateful to be able to play. But it’s obviously nice to have an impact on the score sheet.”

Pius Suter had a goal and two assists, Jonatan Berggren and Justin Faulk each had two assists and Joel Hofer made 23 saves for the Blues (21-28-9), who had lost three straight and eight of nine (1-7-1).

“It was kind of like a reset for everybody, clear our heads, come back to work,” Suter said of the Olympic break. “Sometimes it’s hard when it’s not going your way, but I think this is probably what we needed. It definitely helped, and just a really good start by us and hopefully we can build on that.”

Kaapo Kakko scored and Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for the Kraken (27-22-9), who lost 4-1 to the Dallas Stars on Thursday. 

“I thought it was a hard-fought game both ways,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “We certainly had our chances. … It’s the chances against that are my concern right now. There’s too many of them.”

Holloway made it 1-0 at 7:58 of the first period, scoring from the left circle off a feed from Berggren from behind the net.

Kakko, who was playing his first game since winning a bronze medal with Team Finland at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, tied it 1-1 at 12:32. He knocked in a rebound off a Shane Wright shot.

“The start for today was not the best, but at least we got back in after the goal,” Kakko said. “It was OK after that for a while, but we’ve got to start better.”

Jordan Kyrou and Holloway scored 23 seconds apart early in the second period to put the Blues back in front.

Kyrou made it 2-1 at 1:12. He tapped in the puck at the right post to complete a tic-tac-toe passing play with Pavel Buchnevich and Colton Parayko.

Holloway then made it 3-1 at 1:35 on a net-front rebound play. Logan Mailloux’s shot was picked up by Suter, who backhanded it to Berggren and kept the puck alive in the crease for Holloway to come in and finish it off.

“I don’t think we handled (the net-front) play well at all,” Lambert said. “These last two games with Dallas and St. Louis, I thought we gave up more interior chances than we usually do. We’ve just got to be better. We can say whatever we want. We’ve got to win more battles. There was too much individual stuff that was lost. At the end of the day, I’ve said it before -- this game comes down to winning your individual battles. We just weren’t good enough in that area in both of those games.”

Ryker Evans thought he made it 3-2 at 9:41 of the second period, but the Blues challenged the play for offside, and the call was reversed after a video review.

Suter made it 4-1 at 1:56 of the third period. Holloway found him in the slot for a snap shot after collecting the rebound of a Faulk shot.

“I thought they hounded pucks really well, I thought they used their speed and they created a lot of turnovers on the forecheck,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said of the Holloway-Suter-Berggren line. “And then in the offensive zone, they were connected in triangles and they won races, and they had a great net front presence. You look at the Suter goal [which] was the best example of it.”

Holloway completed the hat trick by scoring into an empty net at 16:59 for the 5-1 final.

NOTES: Holloway’s four points were an NHL career high. … Kyrou extended his point streak to three games (two goals, four assists). He has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his past five games. … Faulk has 10 assists in his past nine games. … Blues forward Jack Finley had an assist and was a plus-1 in 13:17 of ice time in his St. Louis debut after being claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 7. … Goalie Georgi Romanov was the backup to Hofer. St. Louis designated Jordan Binnington as a non-roster player for the game so he could have a night off after playing for Team Canada at the Olympics. Romanov was assigned to Springfield of the American Hockey League after the game.