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While the current iterations may have a bit of a different feel to them, it should be no surprise that the Blues and Islanders played a low-scoring game in their first meeting of the season on Thursday night.

Jake Neighbours scored the game-winning goal for ºüÀêÊÓƵ with 2:56 remaining in overtime, securing a 1-0 win for the Blues on a feed from Philip Broberg.

Joel Hofer made 34 saves in his second start of the season, and first one in a week. Ilya Sorokin kept the Blues at bay by making 29 saves of his own.

The Blues and Islanders have shifted slightly from their concurrent days as lockdown, physical teams but combined for 10 total goals in their two games last season.

The Blues continue their four-game homestand on Saturday when they host the Hurricanes.

Finding chances

In their first game of the season back on the same line, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou generated a fair amount of chances on Thursday night. Through two periods, Kyrou had five shots on goal, and that doesn’t include the handful that he passed up.

In the first period, Kyrou set up two Blues potential opportunities with plays in the neutral zone. Moments after Hofer completed a risky breakout pass to Philip Broberg, Kyrou connected on a cross-ice feed with a teammate in transition. Later on, Kyrou dangled around an Islander in the neutral zone to create space, but he couldn’t get a shot off later in the possession.

Kyrou, who entered the game leading the Blues with six points in four games, had four shots on goal in the second period.

Brayden Schenn had probably the best chance for the Blues with 8:01 left in the second period, outwaiting Ilya Sorokin but then ringing the post.

Bo Horvat hit two posts in 11 seconds during the second for the Islanders.

Getting in the box score

Pierre-Olivier Joseph was playing in just his second game of the season on Thursday night, and he made sure his name would have some numbers behind it in the box score. Joseph had three shot attempts in the first period and two more in the second to lead all Blues defensemen through the opening 40 minutes.

Joseph had two shots blocked in a 10-second span in the first period on the first extended zone time by the Blues on Thursday, and his shot on goal late in the third period set up a rebound opportunity for Alexey Toropchenko.

That first-period burst by ºüÀêÊÓƵ was set up by Zack Bolduc’s physical play along the boards. When Bolduc hit Kyle MacLean along the side boards in the Islanders zone, it set up the type of possession the Blues lacked in the first period.

As for Joseph, he got his name in the box score in a different way in the second period when he was whistled for high-sticking at 8:11. That penalty came about three minutes after his brother, Mathieu Joseph, was called for hooking at 5:02.

The Blues killed both penalties.

Odd bounces

Twice in the opening five minutes did a weird carom almost cost the Blues. On two Islander dump-ins toward the corner with the Zamboni tunnel, Hofer left the net to play the puck below the goal line. But the puck took an unexpected ricochet toward the unmanned slot.

There were no New York players there to take advantage.

Hofer, a goaltender who likes to handle the puck, was burned by a play last season in Florida when a goal took an odd bounce off the curved glass by the Panthers bench.