ANAHEIM — Brayden Schenn, Oskar Sundqvist and Zach Sanford each scored a power-play goal for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Wednesday.
Jordan Binnington made 27 saves after being pulled in his previous start for the Blues (13-8-2), who swept the two-game set following a 5-4 win here Monday.
“Power play was great, special teams all around were good,” Binnington said. “Blocking a ton of shots (17), one-timers, the bench was loud too. Good energy.”
Max Comtois and Rickard Rakell scored, and John Gibson made 18 saves for the Ducks (6-12-5), who have lost eight straight games (0-6-2).
“It seems like a moving target right now,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “You plug one hole and something else starts leaking. I can’t question our team’s effort. The effort was there. Guys played extremely hard for 60 minutes. Our penalty kill going into the game was top in the League (seventh) and we weren’t able to get it done, and that’s what ended up hurting us. Five-on-5 we were very, very good. Our power play still needs to be better (0-for-3), but we at least had a couple of looks there.”
Sundqvist gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 14:45 of the first period. David Perron passed the puck from the left point to Sundqvist, who spun and tucked a shot inside the right post.
Sundqvist’s goal was his first in the NHL on the man-advantage, and his two power-play points matched his career total entering the game.
“It feels like I’ve been getting more comfortable playing with these guys,” Sundqvist said. “It’s a nice feeling to be out there with them.”
Schenn scored his Blues-leading 11th goal on a slap shot from the right point 7 seconds into a power play to make it 2-0 at 10:02 of the second period.
Comtois cut it to 2-1 at 14:13 of the second. Troy Terry hit the post from in close, and Binnington was unable to secure the puck before Comtois skated in and pushed it across the goal line.
Gibson made a save on Ryan O’Reilly‘s breakaway after he exited the penalty box at 9:26 of the third period to keep it a one-goal game, but St. Louis went on the power play soon after and Sanford extended the lead to 3-1 at 13:08.
“These low plays around the net were open (on the power play),” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “They did a good job and took advantage of it.”
Anaheim entered the game seventh in the NHL on the penalty kill at 85 percent, but St. Louis went 3-for-3 on the power play, the first time it scored three times on the man-advantage in a game since Oct. 24, 2019, when it was 3-for-4 in a 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings.
“We’re attacking more now, more downhill, trying to attack the net more often, and we’re winning puck battles,” Sundqvist said. “The last couple games, we’ve been outworking the penalty kill.”
Rakell scored with 9 seconds left and Gibson pulled for the extra skater to make it 3-2. Trevor Zegras, who was selected with the No. 9 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, had the primary assist for his first NHL point in his fifth game.
“I felt like 5-on-5 we were doing a pretty good job out there,” Ducks defenseman Jani Hakanpaa said. “We had our looks there to put the puck in, just didn’t bounce for us tonight, so just got to keep working, keep grinding here.”
NOTES: Sanford has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past three games. … St. Louis has won all four games in Anaheim this season and eight straight at Honda Center, the second-longest road winning streak against a team in its history. The Blues won nine straight at the Arizona Coyotes from Dec. 23, 2011 to March 29, 2017. … Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm missed his second straight game because of an undisclosed injury.
