Blues lose, 4-2, as Sabres pick up 9th consecutive win

Matthew DeFranks, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Dec 29, 2025

Published in Hockey

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ST. LOUIS — The Blues welcomed the hottest team in the league to St. Louis and exited Enterprise Center as the latest victim of the Sabres.

Buffalo won its ninth straight game in a 4-2 victory over the Blues on Monday night, denying St. Louis another chance to pull back to a .500 record. Instead, the Blues will sit at 15-17-8 heading into their final game of 2025 on Wednesday night in Colorado.

Brayden Schenn and Jimmy Snuggerud scored for the Blues, while Noah Ostlund, Alex Tuch, Zach Benson and Peyton Krebs (empty net) scored for the Sabres. Joel Hofer made 30 saves for St. Louis.

It was the second meeting of the season between the Blues and Sabres, as St. Louis won the first one 3-0 on Nov. 6. But this Sabres team looks quite different than the one about eight weeks ago.

"It's a lot different, just their confidence, their swagger," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "You can see it. They expect to score goals. They are scoring goals. They're scoring gritty goals now at the net front besides the skill level that they have. They have skill on three lines, so that's why your details in the D-zone and off the rush have to be good. I think that if our details are good there, we're going to get opportunities going the other way."

Quick strikes

The Blues didn't need much puck possession to score their first two goals of the game, turning a 1-0 Sabres lead into a 2-1 advantage for St. Louis.

Schenn scored at 5:08 of the first period, skating into a puck on the rush and beating Alex Lyon with a shot on the short side. After Justin Faulk flicked a puck off the glass into the neutral zone, Jordan Kyrou shuffled it to the middle of the ice, then Otto Stenberg executed a soft touch pass to the oncoming Schenn.

It was Stenberg's fourth assist in his sixth NHL game and second subtle touch pass that led to a Blues goal. There was also his pass to Jake Neighbours in Florida on Dec. 20.

Snuggerud gave the Blues a lead at 8:09 as he was a one-man wrecking crew in scoring his sixth goal of the season and first since returning from surgery on his left wrist.

Robby Fabbri dumped the puck into the corner, where Snuggerud jumped past slight interference from Ostlund and navigated his way around Mattias Samuelsson. Snuggerud won the puck with a quick stick lift on Samuelsson and found Fabbri at the post. Snuggerud then followed up Fabbri's shot, beating Rasmus Dahlin to a loose puck and stuffed it through Lyon in tight.

Through two periods, Snuggerud had three shots, five attempts and three hits.

Tough night

Logan Mailloux and Cam Fowler were both on the ice for Buffalo's first three goals. Ostlund's goal at 2:19 of the first period gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead, Tuch's at 15:17 of the second period tied the game at 2 and Benson's at 1:46 of the third period gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead.

Mailloux's turnover to Josh Norris exiting the defensive zone led to an immediate two-on-one for the Sabres and a slam dunk on the back door for Ostlund.

After the Blues won an offensive zone faceoff, Mailloux's pass to Pavel Buchnevich was in his skates, allowing the Sabres to carry a three-on-two rush through the neutral zone. Samuelsson found Tuch, and his shot rang the pipe and bounced in.

It was the second time in the period that Tuch put the puck in the net, but the first was disallowed at 3:55 of the second period due to a distinct kicking motion.

Benson regained the lead for Buffalo early in the third period with his fourth goal of the season, swat out of the air on the edge of the crease in front of Fowler.