It felt like it was only a matter of time before the Blues would respond, and they did so at the 10:34 mark of the first period when Vladimir Tarasenko was left uncovered in the slot to bury his 17th goal of the season. It was an instance where the Ducks lost a puck battle, a trend that unfortunately continued for the rest of the game.
"They seemed to be a step-and-a-half quicker than we were," Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. "We scored the first goal, but we were being outshot 8-2 at that point. We just seemed like we were slower than they were. They had more jump and energy, and they owned the puck. We hung our goaltender out to dry."
After a strong opening period, the Blues promptly took the lead at the 2:04 mark of the second period when Zach Sanford raced in on his off-wing and buried his own rebound for his sixth goal of the season.
The Blues weren't done. They doubled their lead roughly five minutes later when Oskar Sundqvist tapped in a pass from Patrick Maroon midway through the second period, and tacked on two more goals in the third from Tyler Bozak and Sammy Blais to make it 5-1. Naturally, emotions after the game were running high.
"I'm pissed off and frustrated, and it's really hard to understand that our group is in a playoff race still, after everything, and we can't come out and compete hard around our net," said Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf. "We have to play and compete as a five-man unit. At times we got one guy going or two guys going and then the third or the fourth guy isn't there. As a collective group we aren't playing hard enough to compete in this league. Obviously this break couldn't come at a better time for our group right now. Hopefully we can go away, relax, stop gripping the sticks and understand what it takes to compete in this hockey league."
John Gibson finished the night with 26 saves on 31 shots, but was relieved by Chad Johnson with 10 minutes left in regulation. At the other end, Binnington needed just 12 saves to improve his record this season to 5-1-1. The Ducks fell to 2-10-4 in their last 16 games. "Bottom line is we had a team come in here and outwork our hockey club tonight," said Carlyle. "We're not going to accept that."
Anaheim's next game will take place on Saturday, Feb. 2 in Winnipeg, the start of a five-game road trip that features stops in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Philadelphia. "Sometimes the break comes at good times for teams, sometimes not so much," said defenseman Cam Fowler. "I think it's good for us. I think our guys need to get refreshed mentally and physically. Obviously, everyone knows the bumps and bruises that we've been suffering from, so it gives our guys a chance to get away from hockey for a few days."
Since it was Angels Night at Honda Center, Shohei Ohtani, David Fletcher and former Angel and current radio analyst Mark Langston were on hand to take part in a ceremonial faceoff prior to the game tonight. The Ducks wore Angels-inspired jerseys during warmups that will be auctioned off for charity.
