St. Louis Blues stun Anaheim Ducks 5-1
The Anaheim Ducks may still be wondering what happened on Monday after two quick goals by the St Louis Blues helped propel them to a 5-1 win over the winless Ducks.
Early in the first period, David Backes and Andy McDonald set a new franchise record for the Blues by scoring six seconds apart. After Backes had scored to make it 1-0, Blues centre T.J.
Oshie won the faceoff and got the puck back to him from Patrikk Berglund. He then passed to McDonald by the left face-off circle, who fired a wrist shot past Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller.
Blues forward Brad Boyes admitted that the quick start was the key to victory.
"They've had trouble scoring goals, so it was good for us to get off to a quick start, get on them quickly and put a couple of goals in," said Brad Boyes. "The quick start was something
we wanted to do."
Blues defenseman Barret Jackman also touched on the quick start.
"To be rewarded that early, it really helps you to stick to your game plan and I thought we did a good job throughout the game to do that," Jackman said.
B.J. Crombeen gave the Blues a 3-0 lead with a short-handed goal in the second period before the Ducks were finally able to get on the board after Saku Koivu scored on the power play just
58 seconds later. Matt D’Agostini scored his first of two on the night with just over four minutes left to play in the second period to put the Blues up 4-1. He then closed out the scoring late in the third to give the Blues a 5-1 win.
"You always want to get that first one and get it off your back," D'Agostini said. "Then you can start playing."
The Blues dominated the game from start to finish and badly out-shot the Ducks 53 -14.
"It was full engagement from start to finish," St. Louis coach Davis Payne. "We've been on the other end of that."
Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halak picked up his second win of the season, needing to make only 13 saves in the victory. The win improved the Blues record to 2-0.
The Ducks meanwhile, are now 0-3 to start their season, having dropped three-straight road games but coach Randy Carlyle remains hopeful that they can improve.
"Obviously, the sun is going to come up tomorrow -- we hope," he said. "What you have to do is take a self-analysis of what we can do better. There's lots of areas for us to improve in
as a team."
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