Blues Fly By The Ducks

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks were in St. Louis to take on the Blues. Lukas Dostal was in net against Jordan Binnington.

Recap

The Blues jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the opening minutes of this contest. Brayden Schenn scored just 41 after the puck drop. Pavel Buchnevich followed him up with a goal about a minute later.

Late in the period Schenn took exception to a check by Jacob Trouba and they dropped the gloves. The Ducks got a power play as Schenn got an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Ducks had extremely good pressure with the man advantage, but could not convert. The Blues went on the power in the final seconds of the period as Ryan Strome was called for tripping.

Anaheim killed off the penalty to start the second period. The Ducks went back on the penalty kill about eight minutes into the period and Dylan Holloway scored to make it 3-0.

The Ducks got on the board about two minutes later when Cutter Gauthier got to a rebound and scored while falling to the ice.

Radek Faksa scored with just over four minutes left in the period to make it a 4-1 game.

The Ducks got a power play in the final minutes of the period, but Mathieu Joseph scored on a 2-on-1 rush. St. Louis led 5-1 after two periods of play.

Ville Husso was in net to start the third period. Anaheim scored early in the third period. Gauthier appeared to have scored his second of the game, but replay showed Nikita Nesterenko‘s hand got a piece of the shot before the puck went in.

The Ducks would get in penalty trouble going shorthanded three separate times in the third period. The Blues scored twice on the power play and went on to an easy 7-2 win.

Analysis:

Anaheim came out flat footed and was down 2-0 in just one minute and thirty seconds of play. The Blues went up 3-0 early in the second period and never really looked back after that. Gauthier got the Ducks on the board and within two goals, but then St. Louis answered with two more goals to make it 5-1 and eventually won 7-2.

This was just an overall embarrassing game for Anaheim. The Ducks had already lost one goal games to St. Louis, Utah, and Vancouver in the past few weeks. Anaheim needed to win this game in regulation to keep any playoffs hopes alive and they laid a big fat egg instead.

Dostal had a rare rough outing giving up five goals on just 14 shots against. Husso came in for relief in the third period with John Gibson still dealing with a nagging injury.

Team Notes/Stats:

Stian Solberg was assigned to the San Diego Gulls prior to this contest.

The Ducks are eight points behind Vancouver and St. Louis for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Anaheim only has 15 games left to go and would need to win a majority of those contests if they want to make things interesting down the stretch.

Nikita Nesterenko has scored four NHL goals and all of them came against the St. Louis Blues with Binnington in net.

The Ducks have lost their last 10 games against the Blues.

What’s Next?

The Ducks play the Stars Tuesday at 5PM.

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March 16th, 2025