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Rob Niedermayer helps Ducks roll to ninth straight home win

Mar 16, 2008 - 6:39 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Rob Niedermayer and the Anaheim Ducks cannot seem to lose at home.

Niedermayer scored twice in the third period as the Ducks posted a 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

Teemu Selanne had a goal and an assist for Anaheim (41-25-8), which moved within two points of idle San Jose (42-21-8) for first place in the Pacific Division. The Ducks also climbed one point ahead of Dallas (42-27-5) for fourth in the Western Conference as the Stars lost, 4-3, to Vancouver on Saturday.

Defenseman Mathieu Schneider and All-Star Ryan Getzlaf also tallied and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 38 shots for the Ducks, who extended their franchise-best home winning streak to nine games.

"Right now, if it wasn't for our home record, we wouldn't be sitting where we are," Niedermayer said. "On the road, we haven't been playing as well as we need to. I think we have to try and play a little more consistent."

Anaheim now has 25 home wins - one shy of the franchise mark set each of the last two seasons.

"We need to get some confidence here at home and really show the rest of the league that we're going to be a tough team to beat here in our building," Giguere said. "We've been playing pretty well at home, and we have to keep going in that same direction."

Jamal Mayers and defenseman Jeff Woywitka scored for the reeling Blues, who have lost 10 straight away from home and fell to 0-5-1 on their franchise-record nine-game road trip.

The Ducks twice lost a one-goal lead before scoring three times in the third period.

"We probably didn't play as well as we would have liked, and we're going to need a stronger effort at Dallas (on Wednesday)," Giguere said. "At the end of the day, we found a way to win. We got some big goals from our third line in the third period. There's still a lot of positives."

Woywitka tied the game at 2-2 with his first goal of the season just 54 seconds into the third. But Niedermayer scored what proved to be the game-winner at 4:08 of the period.

St. Louis defenseman Matt Walker lost the puck in his skates and turned it over to Niedermayer, who appeared to use blue-liner Eric Brewer as a screen in order to beat All-Star Manny Legace to the right side for a 3-2 lead.

"We tied it up there and it's just disappointing," St. Louis rookie defenseman Erik Johnson said. "We played a pretty solid game. We all competed, but in the end, it just wasn't good enough. We've got to be better. This is just unacceptable what we are going through right now."

Niedermayer doubled the advantage at 11:09 with his eighth goal of the season, an easy tap-in as Travis Moen drew Legace's attention on the right side and slid a cross-crease pass to Niedermayer.

Getzlaf capped the scoring with 98 seconds remaining with his 23rd goal.

Legace stopped 29 shots for the Blues, who had just one power-play opportunity.

"I thought it was a close game the whole game," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We outchanced them badly in the third period as well. We failed to capitalize on our opportunities when it was 2-2. We had two or three great chances to go up, and they got the timely goal that gave them the lead. You are never pleased when you lose. But we've asked our players to compete hard, and that's what they did."

The Ducks were without captain Chris Pronger, who received an eight-game suspension earlier Saturday for intentionally stepping on the leg of Vancouver's Ryan Kesler in Wednesday's game.

Despite the win, Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle was unhappy with the effort.

"We didn't play to the level that's going to be required here," Carlyle said. "We'll take the win, but we're going to have to play to a higher level than we played tonight in our next game against Dallas."