Final
Ducks win 5th straight, blank Blues
Oct 20, 2014 - 4:04 AM Anaheim, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Frederik Andersen recorded his first career shutout and the Ducks rolled to their fifth straight victory with a 3-0 whitewash of the St. Louis Blues.Andersen stopped all 28 shots he faced, Sami Vatanen netted a pair of power play goals and Matt Beleskey set the tone with a goal 1:37 into the game.
The Ducks improved to 7-0-1 in their past eight matchups against the Blues and have won eight straight meetings at Honda Center.
St. Louis was playing on tired legs after netting six goals in a win against the Coyotes on Saturday.
"We took two-thirds of the game to get going and by then it is too late," Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I wasn't happy with the way we played, period."
Brian Elliott made 22 saves and was the victim of an unlucky bounce less than two minutes into the game.
The puck hit a linesman along the boards when Rickard Rakell was sending it into the offensive zone, and the deflection caromed directly to Beleskey. With the defense out of position, Beleskey had a clear shot on net and blasted one into the left corner.
Late in the opening period, Vatanen started a rush with a crisp pass and had the puck dropped to him off the boards. As he entered the zone, he fired a slap shot in rhythm through a screen that beat Elliott.
Ryan Getzlaf set up Vatanen's second goal in the middle stanza with a cross- ice pass from one faceoff circle to the other.
Andersen, who has started in all five of Anaheim's wins following its season- opening loss in Pittsburgh, made 16 saves in the third period to keep the Blues off the board.
"We're starting to play like we want to," said Andersen, who joined Ross Brooks as the only goaltenders in NHL history to win 25 (or more) of his first 30 NHL decisions. "We came out strong in this game and played well defensively and offensively the whole 60 minutes. That was a really good team effort today."
Game Notes
Blues forward Paul Stastny sat out with an upper body injury ... Elliott fell to 1-5-2 against the Ducks ... Getzlaf was credited with two assists.
- ST. LOUIS: 0
ANAHEIM: 3
Final
Oct 19 10:34 PM - ST. LOUIS: 0
ANAHEIM: 3
End of 2nd
Oct 19 9:42 PM - ST. LOUIS: 0
ANAHEIM: 2
End of 1st
Oct 19 8:45 PM - Anaheim Power-Play Goal - Sami Vatanen, from Jakob Silfverberg and Ryan Getzlaf at 17:53.
Blues 0, Ducks 2 1st - 2:07Oct 19 8:41 PM - Anaheim Goal - Matt Beleskey (4), from Rickard Rakell at 1:37.
Blues 0, Ducks 1 1st - 18:23Oct 19 8:11 PM - ST. LOUIS: 0
ANAHEIM: 0
1st Period - 20:00
Oct 19 8:08 PM
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