Hofer makes 30 saves, Blues hand Ducks 3rd straight loss

ANAHEIM -- Joel Hofer made 30 saves for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Sunday.

Jake Neighbours, Pavel Buchnevich and Alexey Toropchenko scored for the Blues (9-7-1), who were outscord 10-2 while losing their two previous games, including 5-1 at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

"With the back-to-back, we had a chance to get some sleep, come out and fix things, and I thought we did that," Neighbours said. "We're not a team that's going to win hockey games if we're not outworking the opponent. We're at our best when we're skating, forechecking, backchecking and applying pressure."

Mason McTavish scored and John Gibson made 28 saves for the Ducks (9-9-0), who have lost three in a row.

"I didn't see a lot of energy. That surprised me," Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. "I thought they'd be flying and there wasn't a lot of energy."

The Ducks appeared to take a 1-0 lead at 8:19 of the first period on a goal by defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, but video review initiated by St. Louis coach Craig Berube's challenge determined Anaheim's Leo Carlsson preceded the puck into the offensive zone.

"We kind of knew when it went in that it was offsides," Berube said. "Looked at it again and it was a pretty easy call."

The Blues took a 1-0 lead 1:06 later. Oskar Sundqvist intercepted a pass from Ducks forward Alex Killorn in the Anaheim zone and fed Neighbours, who scored for the second straight game on a one-timer from the right circle at 9:25.

"I knew [Sundqvist] had a guy fronting him and if I could get myself available, he was going to make a play," Neighbours said. "So I tried to slide to the backside there and ‘Sunny's’ a passer, so I knew he'd slide it over."

McTavish struck Sundqvist in the face with a high stick following a face-off in the St. Louis zone, resulting in a double minor at 12:13.

The Ducks killed the four-minute power play, but the Blues went back on a man-advantage eight seconds later. St. Louis scored 13 seconds into that power play when Jordan Kyrou fed Buchnevich for a backdoor tap-in for a 2-0 lead at 16:34.

"I think the penalties, the four-minute and the two-minute right after that, probably wasn't a good situation for us," Cronin said. "We weren't getting into a rhythm."

The Ducks had a two-man advantage for 41 seconds beginning at 18:11 of the first period but couldn't capitalize.

"We've got to find ways to create more offense. I don't think we've been doing enough," Killorn said. "Guys, in the end, start turning it over a little bit too much, too. Trying to create something because we haven't been creating enough. I forced one in the first period, in the defensive zone, that put us down 1-0. That was on me."

Toropchenko scored to extend the lead to 3-0 at 5:39 of the second period. Kevin Hayes centered a pass off the skate of teammate Justin Faulk and the carom went to Toropchenko, who spun and shot the puck into the net from in front of the crease.

"I just was staying in front screening the goalie, and was trying to find a place," Toropchenko. "[Hayes] or someone shoots, I don't remember who, and the puck just bounced off of someone and I turned and just bang it to the net."

MacTavish pulled the Ducks to within 3-1 at 8:47 of the second. Killorn tapped the puck to McTavish after a St. Louis turnover in its zone, and McTavish scored with a backhand from in close.

"We've just got to find ways to get pucks to the net," Killorn said. "You look at one of their goals, where it's just kind of a rebound that hits off of a guy’s skate. There's three guys down at the net. We've got to win those battles in front of the net like that."

NOTES: Buchnevich has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past six games. ... St. Louis is 8-0-0 when scoring first this season. ... Gibson played his 442nd game with the Ducks, passing Guy Hebert for the second-most by a goalie in their history (Jean-Sebastien Giguere, 447).