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 Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice late and Paul Stastny, Jori Lehtera
and Patrik Berglund added goals to lead the Blues to a 5-2 victory
over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night at Scottrade Center.
"With everything we've gone through, we wake up tomorrow morning in
a hockey game for first place," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said of
his injury-plagued squad. "Nobody would have thought of that because
of everything these guys have been through. That's a real feather in
their cap. This is 3-0 against top teams and a chance to go 4-0
tomorrow. Tough opponent, but it's pretty impressive that we've been
able to maintain a competitive level despite missing key guys all
year."
Jake Allen made 26 saves for St. Louis (40-20-9), which tied its
season-long win streak of five games and has won 10 of 13 games.
That has helped the Blues move into second place in the Central as
well as the Western Conference -- with a game against the
first-place Dallas Stars on the road on Saturday.
"Getting guys back from injury was kind of nice -- getting Petro
(Alex Pietrangelo) back, getting Snake (Jake Allen) back," Stastny
said of the recent stretch of success. "We've kind of found a niche
and found line combinations that are all playing well together. ...
Different nights we've had different people step up."
Ryan Getzlaf and Rickard Rakell scored for the Ducks (37-21-9), who
lost their third straight game after winning 11 in a row. Frederik
Andersen made 18 stops in the defeat.
The Ducks scored first, 5:17 into the second period, on a 5-on-3
power-play after the Blues were called for interference (Lehtera)
and too many men on the ice.
St. Louis wasn't able to clear a bouncing puck from the low slot and
Getzlaf was able to knock a rebound of a shot from Ryan Kesler out
of the air and past Allen for his 11th goal of the season.
The Blues tied the score with 3:24 left in the second period when
Stastny redirected a long pass from Carl Gunnarsson for his seventh
of the season.
St. Louis then scored twice in the first 2:59 of the third period.
Lehtera scored his ninth of the season on a snap shot from the left
circle after a pass from Jaden Schwartz 1:55 into the period.
Then Berglund scored his seventh of the season with a wrist shot
from the slot, just 1:04 later, after a turnover by Ducks defenseman
Josh Manson, to make it 3-1.
"When you give them two shots right from the slot, it's tough,"
Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "They're a good team. We can't
make those defensive mistakes. We haven't in a long time. You'd like
to say those things happen, but we haven't seen them happen. We
don't want to see them happen anymore. They're going to score on
plays like that. We had three bad giveaways in the third period.
They put them all in."
Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler said, "Everything that they got was
given to them and we're all included in that. So just one of those
games -- no explanation for it -- but you know we'll just try to
learn from it and do better next time."
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Rakell was credited with his 18th goal with 4:33 remaining after
Troy Brouwer's clearing attempt ricocheted off the skate of Stastny
and past Allen.
"They got a lucky bounce on that second goal; other than that I
think we controlled them pretty good," said Gunnarsson, who signed a
three-year contract extension that was announced before the game.
"They made a couple mistakes and we capitalized on it. I think
overall it was a good game."
Tarasenko added an insurance goal with 2:38 remaining and then
scored an empty-netter with 1:22 left, his 31st and 32nd goals of
the season.
"It was 1-1 in another team's building," Kesler said. "It was a good
situation for us. To go out and give up four goals in a period and
make uncharacteristic mistakes like that isn't good. We have to nip
this in the bud and learn from it. We have to collectively be
better."
The Blues want to keep their momentum going as they go on the road
for five games in 10 days.
"This is crucial," Allen said. "I think we had one of the hardest
schedules to finish the season in the league. To be able to start
the way that we did, the way that we have, is great but we've got a
long way to go. Only a handful of games left, it feels like the
season has flown by already. But we want to finish on the right foot
and head into the playoffs on a winning way and just everybody have
that confidence again."
NOTES: The Blues announced before Friday's game they had signed D
Carl Gunnarsson to a three-year contract extension worth $8.7
million. ... The NHL rescinded the game misconduct penalty Blues RW
Ryan Reaves received from a charging major against Chicago on
Wednesday. ... Ducks C Shawn Horcoff was eligible to return from a
20-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use but was a
healthy scratch against the Blues. ... With his goal on Wednesday,
Blues C David Backes tied Al MacInnis for sixth on the Blues'
all-time scoring list with 452 points. ... Blues RW Troy Brouwer
played in his 600th NHL game on Friday against Anaheim. ... Blues C
Steve Ott (lower-body injury) skated with the team for the first
time on Friday morning. He has not played since Dec. 5. ... The
Ducks begin a three-game homestand on Monday against New Jersey. ...
The Blues play at Dallas on Saturday.
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