In Anaheim, the wind out of the Ducks wings this late season. On Saturday, the St Louis Blues doubled up a spent Anaheim roster, 6-3.
Brayden Schenn and Kasperi Kapanen each hit for doubles in the Blues win.
Jordan Binnington made 22 saves in the Blues win.
St Louis moved to 33-33-6, they have points in five straight games.
“The team played an outstanding game,” Kapanen said. “It was a big win for us.”
The Ducks dropped to 23-40-10.
The two teams traded goals in the first period with the Blues finding themselves up, 3-2 after 20 minutes.
“For whatever reason, we wanted to get into a track meet,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “We’re just not built to outscore our mistakes. We’re going to have to get back to playing tighter on our forecheck and through our neutral zone.”
Troy Terry put the Ducks up, 1-0, but St Louis replied with a marker frm Jakub Vrana a for the tie.
“After we get scored on, we have a good shift after that,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “That’s really important.”
Nikita Nesterenko scored for the Ducks to give them a 2-1 lead on his first career NHL goal.
“Great play by Terry getting it out to [Mason] McTavish there, and then he found me for a wide-open net, so all I had to do was put it in,” Nesterenko said. “Before the game, [McTavish] was like, ‘I think I feel it coming.’ He made a great play, so all the credit to him.”
The Ducks goals came on their first two shots of the game.
“Early on, I wanted to find that rhythm of the game and feel the flow of the game,” Binnington said. “The first two [shots] went in, so it took a little bit, but then we really played a very strong game. Got a lot of chances, a lot of opportunities working at both ends of the ice, so I was just happy to be back out there playing.”
Sammy Blais knotted it at 2-2, and Schenn potted his first of the game for the 3-2 advantage to the Blues.
“Sometimes starting a game [with an early lead] can [be a] detriment because it just feels like you’re going to do whatever you want,” Eakins said. “That’s certainly not the case against that team. They’re too deep. They’ve got lots of guys that have been through the playoffs.”
Schenn scored his double at 1:02 of the middle frame, and Kapanen hit for is first, 29 seconds later for a 5-2 lad. for the Blues.
Kapanen’s double came with 15 seconds of fresh ice used in the third period for a 6-2 lead.
Ryan Strome added a cosmetic goal late for the 6-3 final.
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John Gibson made 30 saves in the Ducks loss.
“Every time we come to play, we want to compete, play with passion and win games,” the Ducks; Mason McTavish said. “It doesn’t really matter who the opponent is, I think the focus is on our team and ourselves. I just think we have to come to play every game.”
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