Anaheim Ducks overcome St.Louis Blues 7-4
Bobby Ryan registered the third hat-trick of his career, and had an assist to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 7-4 victory over St. Louis Blues at the Honda Centre, on Wednesday night.
Lubomir Visnovsky scored a goal and had two assists for Anaheim, while Brandon McMillan and Jason Blake also lit the lamp for Ducks.
Jonas Hiller turned aside 30 shots for Anaheim, who went 5-1-0 during their homestand and have won six of their last seven games. Corey Perry also scored a goal and an assist in his side’s win.
Ryan was pleased with his team’s performance, but urged them to become more consistent. He said, "We've realised that on a homestand you really need to come out and put your best foot forward. The month of December was a little bit ugly. We've gone on streaks
all year long. We need to come out at home, establish the fore check and our identity."
David Backes netted two goals for St. Louis, who have lost five consecutive play-offs. Brad Boyes and Ryan Reaves also scored a goal apiece for the Blues. While goaltender Ty Conklin gave up all seven goals on 24 shots.
Ryan started the scoring for Anheim with a power-play goal three and a half minutes into the opening period. Joffrey Lupul slipped a pass to the right circle for Ryan, who slapped a wrist shot to beat Conklin for a 1-0 lead.
Blake then doubled the Ducks advantage in the eighth minute of the opening period. He managed the puck behind the net, skated out in front of the net and fired a shot. The puck deflected off the skate of a St. Louis defenseman and trickled into the net.
Ryan joined the action again with two minutes left in the first period. A great play from him helped Anaheim to extend their lead to 3-0. Perry, fighting with two Blues defenders behind the net, controlled the puck and somehow managed to one-hand a pass
in front of the net for Ryan to score. Visnovsky also assisted for this goal.
The middle period was much different. St. Louis dominated the play, out-shooting Anaheim 16-7, and clawed their way back into the contest with a pair of goals from Backes.
The Blues scored their first goal in the fourth minute to reduce the deficit to 3-1. Anaheim was trying to clear the puck into St. Louis’ zone, but Alex Pietrangelo got the puck and chipped it to Backes, who beat Hiller.
Less than three minutes later, the Blues crept within another goal by Backes to cut the deficit to 3-2. Backes, skating on a give-and-go with Vladimir Sobotka, fired a wrist shot from the left circle to beat the Ducks goalie for the second time.
St. Louis was back in business, trailing by just one goal, but Anaheim poured it on with four straight goals in the final period.
Just 30 seconds into the third period, Ryan recorded his 30th hat-trick in club history. Andreas Lilja slapped the puck from the right point which fell to Ryan, who nimbly deflected it home for a 4-2 lead.
Ryan described his goals after the game by saying, "The first one was a weird play. It came off the cycle and I tried to push it low. Lupul made a great play through the slot area to find me. I had a lot of net to shoot it
He added, “The whole play with Perry, I was in the right spot at the right time. The third one, Lilja made a great shot. I was the benefactor of a lot of good plays around me tonight. It was nice to have those."
Perry extended the Ducks lead to 5-2 in the seventh minute of the third period. The Blues netminder attempted to play the puck behind his own net, but Perry stole the disc and easily put a wraparound into an open net.
With seven minutes remaining in the final period, Visnovsky’s slap shot from the point on a power-play made it a 6-2 game. Less than two minutes later, McMillan scored a power-play goal of his own to give Anaheim a huge five goal advantage at 7-2.
Blues Coach Davis Payne was disappointed with this team’s performance and urged them to be more focused. He said, "You look at the start they got off to - they got a pretty good jump on us. We got ourselves back in the game, but we made some mental mistakes
early that cost us. It's one thing to not have your legs going early, but the mental preparation has to be better."
The Blues however, cut the deficit to 7-3 with Reaves' first career goal with nearly four minutes to play. Boyes also lit the lamp with two minutes left to account for the final score 7-4.
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