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The Anaheim Ducks lost the first matchup of their two-game set against the St. Louis Blues yesterday, falling 6-2.
The Ducks were completely outplayed in the first period, being outshot by a huge 16-5 margin. The Blues opened the scoring with about seven minutes to go in the period, as Noel Acciari tipped in Justin Faulk’s point shot. Then a few minutes later, Robert Thomas got the puck over to Pavel Buchnevich who scored before Gibson could fully get over, putting St. Louis up 2-0 through 20 minutes.
Buchnevich struck again only a minute into the second period, beating Gibson with a backhand shot in-close. Then only a few minutes after that, the Ducks turned the puck over in the offensive zone and Brayden Schenn went back on a rush the other way, taking a shot that deflected in off Cam Fowler’s stick to make it a 4-0 game. Fowler did get one back for the Ducks on a power play only a couple minutes later, but only about two minutes after Fowler’s goal, St. Louis capitalized on a power play of their own, with Torey Krug beating Gibson to make it a 5-1 game.
The Ducks did end up outshooting St. Louis 13-5 in the third period and Adam Henrique brought Anaheim back to within three on a power play, tipping in a point shot from Fowler. However, Robert Thomas did end up scoring for the Blues with about five minutes left in the game, capitalizing off a perfect pass from Jordan Kyrou to beat Anthony Stolarz (who replaced Gibson for the third period), leading to a 6-2 Blues win.
While the shots in the game were close, it was a pretty rough outing for the Ducks defensively. While they did put together a better third period, they gave up 29 shots in the first two periods alone, many of those being high-end chances.
On the bright side, the Ducks did manage to capitalize on two of their four power plays. It’s good to see, given how much they’ve struggled to get anything accomplished on the man advantage so far this season, operating at just 13.7 per cent, which ranks 31st overall.
The Ducks have won just one of their last six games and continue to struggle this season. They’ll face the Blues once again on Monday, as they wrap up their brief three-game road trip.
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