ANAHEIM –– The Ducks erased three deficits against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday at Honda Center, but they ultimately fell short 6-5 in a shootout.
Rookie Leo Carlsson and All-Star Frank Vatrano each lit the lamp twice for Anaheim, with Nikita Nesterenko adding a goal. Trevor Zegras, Alex Killorn and Isac Lundeström all dished out two assists. Lukáš Dostál stopped 26 shots.
Leading scorer Robert Thomas paced St. Louis with a goal and three assists. Captain Brayden Schenn contributed a goal and an assist. Zachary Bolduc, Pavel Buchnevich and Matthew Kessel each had a goal. Jordan Kyrou chipped in three assists before scoring the shootout’s lone goal. Jordan Binnington made 33 saves.
The shootout opened with a flashy attempt by Zegras that resulted in his skyward backhand hitting the post. Kyrou had no such issues on his own backhand, which became the shootout winner.
Overtime was played with vigor and a pair of solid chances near its conclusion for Olen Zellweger, who was poke checked, and Troy Terry, whose short-side shot in the dying embers nearly earned the Ducks a second point.
Carlsson knotted the score at five with 3:51 remaining in regulation when he zoomed toward the inner edge of the right circle to snipe a snapshot inside the left post for the 12th goal of his first NHL campaign.
Vatrano scored his second goal of the evening, adding intrigue to the final 11:56 of the match. Zegras fended off two checkers behind the net, one of whom pushed him so that he was draped over the nylon with his left arm balancing him against the cage. With only his right arm on his stick, he shoveled the puck in front for Vatrano, who kicked it to his stick and backhanded it home for his team-leading 32nd goal.
The Ducks seized momentum previously, but then handed it right back in the first 2:40 of the third period.
Just 49 seconds after they scored on the power play, Vatrano took an interference penalty and the Blues kept the Ducks at arm’s length with a five-on-four goal. A shot from between the circles nearly became the second goal of the game for Thomas, but instead it became his fourth point when Jordan Kyrou slipped his rebound to Schenn at the back post for two swipes at one goal.
A mere 62 ticks into the final frame, the Ducks halved their deficit with a man-advantage marker. Terry fed Lundeström in the low slot, where his fanning on a one-timer proved fortuitous as the puck sailed to Carlsson at the post for a tap-in tally, his 11th.
Underlying numbers supported the Ducks’ effort through 40 minutes, with Natural Stat Trick scoring 75% of high-danger scoring chances, 70% of expected goals for and 65% of overall scoring chances in their favor. Yet the Blues led 4-2 at the second intermission.
With 4:10 to play in the second period, St. Louis got an insurance marker off a moderately paced counterattack that culminated in Vatrano having to defend Brandon Saad, who provided a screen in front, and Buchnevich, who ripped a one-timer past Dostál through that screen.
St. Louis had reclaimed the lead just over two minutes earlier off a power play they earned after a dustup in the Blues’ goal crease. Thomas received the puck at the right-wing wall before gliding atop the right faceoff dot and rifling a shot through Schenn’s screen.
The Ducks found their second equalizer of the night 3:41 into the second stanza, when luck was the residue of opportunity and design. Killorn took the puck to the net and his backhand bid teetered inside the blue paint. Vatrano got his stick on the puck in the crease, but Binnington actually knocked it in with his own glove as he reached back for it. Vatrano was credited with the goal and Killorn with his 500th career assist.
The first period had brisk pace and strong underlying numbers for the hosts, but the visitors went to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead thanks to a late-period breakaway save on Ryan Strome by Binnington and, before that, Kessel’s first career goal.
Terry’s giveaway inside the offensive blue line nearly went for naught after Schenn mishandled a pass in the neutral zone, but the Blues salvaged the rush as Thomas found a trailing Kessel for a shot under the crossbar and inside the far post.
Related Articles
Ducks seek better effort against the Blues
Leo Carlsson’s flashy goal not enough as Kraken beat Ducks again
Kings’ Arvidsson, Ducks’ Vaakanainen nominated for Masterton Trophy
Ducks kick off 4-game homestand trying to solve Seattle
Ducks sign Yegor Sidorov and Coulson Pitre to 3-year entry-level deals
The Ducks had drawn even at 2:37 off a sequence where Nesterenko out-competed towering defenseman Colton Parayko, beginning with a board battle that won possession for the Ducks and ending with a forceful effort to beat Parayko to Gustav Lindström’s rebound before popping it past Binnington. Nesterenko’s second career goal came against the same team that surrendered his first on March 25, 2023.
The Blues got on the board just 11 seconds into the contest. After winning the opening faceoff, they ended up with a three-on-two rush as Radko Gudas was forced to defend Thomas and Bolduc. Thomas moved the puck to Bolduc, who let fly with a wrist shot to the far side for the rookie’s third NHL goal.
