The Blues showed life in the first period and then turned the rest of the game into what most of their other games have been, a maddening exercise in missed chances and mistakes that usually ended up costing them.
After scoring two goals in the first period that promised life in the team’s moribund offense, the Blues didn’t score in the rest of regulation, and then lost in overtime, 3-2, to the Ducks on Sunday afternoon at Enterprise Center.
The Ducks had the puck for the entirety of the overtime, which ended with Josh Manson backhanding in a puck over the shoulder of goalie Jordan Binnington 1:42 into the extra period.
The Blues are winless in their past four games and have now won just twice in their past 11 games. Just once in their past eight games have they scored more than two goals.
The Blues scored first for the first time since March 8, with Tarasenko stealing an Anaheim effort to get the puck out of the zone, and backhanding the puck toward the net, where Ryan O’Reilly got his stick on the puck – Jaden Schwartz was right next to him in case O’Reilly missed it – and put tipped it past Anaheim goalie Anthony Stolarz, filling in for an injured John Gibson.
Tarasenko got his first goal since March 12 on a power play with 4:01 to go in the first. Off the faceoff to start the power play, David Perron got the puck at the blueline to Torey Krug, who faked a shot and then passed to Tarasenko on the right, who one-timed a shot into the top right corner. Tarasenko had gone seven games without a goal and Blues coach Craig Berube said before the game that the scoring slump had to be affecting him, but that once he got the next goal, it would get him going.
In an effort to get that going, Berube had moved his lines around, putting Tarasenko with O’Reilly and Schwartz while having Brayden Schenn move back to the wing, playing opposite David Perron, with Robert Thomas in the middle.
But the biggest move was the healthy scratch of forward Mike Hoffman, the high-scoring free-agent forward who hasn’t fit in yet with the Blues. Hoffman was tied for fifth on the team in scoring with eight goals and has spent much of the season on the third line – seemingly an indication of a lack of faith in his defense from Berube -- and the second power-play unit, a place where he has excelled. Hoffman’s ice time of 15:24 per game is on pace to be his lowest since his first full season in the NHL, and he figures to be below his career average for goals, even accounting for a pro-rated season.
Berube had said after the Blues’ 4-1 loss to Anaheim on Friday that he was going to use players who were willing to go to the net.
Also out of the lineup was defenseman Vince Dunn. Dunn was on the ice for pregame warmups but was a late scratch in favor of Niko Mikkola.
Anaheim cut the lead to 2-1 midway through the second period when the Blues lost an offensive zone faceoff which led to a rush the other way, and a two-on-one ended with Ryan Getzlaf passing to Cam Fowler for the goal.
The Blues had a power play they couldn’t score on and the Ducks later lost forward Rickard Rakell after a center-ice collision with Kyle Clifford left him laying still on the ice. He eventually got up and left the ice with a teammate under each arm.
Anaheim tied the game early in the third period on a play that started with Jordan Kyrou, trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone, losing his footing and falling down. That started a Ducks rush the other way which ended with Adam Henrique turning around Robert Bortuzzo and getting free to score with 17:47 to go in the third.
