ANAHEIM, Calif. — Through thick and thin, the Honda Center has been a friendly port in recent seasons for Blues hockey. That was the case once again Wednesday with the Blues winning their eighth straight at Anaheim, 3-2, with all three goals coming on the power play.
The bad news is that the Blues don’t play at the Honda Center again this season. OK, maybe in the playoffs but the Ducks are last in the West at 6-12-5.
As for the Blues (13-8-2), winners of three straight, their four remaining games with Anaheim will be played in St. Louis, beginning with a March 26 contest at Enterprise Center. Maybe the Blues should paint the Ducks logo at center ice. Just a thought.
The Blues are now 9-2-0 on the road this season, matching a league-high for away wins with Toronto (9-1-1) and Carolina (9-5-0). It’s hard to figure, especially considering the Blues are 4-6-2 at home.
Just ask defenseman Justin Faulk.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There’s probably not much you can pinpoint this year. In other years on the road, you can kind of point to something, whether it be a nice team dinner, maybe a nice ‘soda’ after a game or something like that. I don’t know. I think we just go into buildings and try and make it tough on teams.”
Even with all the Blues’ injuries, the sight of Oskar Sundqvist on the first power-play unit may be a surprise to some. But Sundqvist is a sturdy presence net front, and that’s why Craig Berube has him there. It paid off for a 1-0 lead late in the opening period.
With Anaheim’s Josh Mahura off for hooking Dakota Joshua, Sundqvist was stationed with his back to Ducks goalie John Gibson when he got a pass from the left point from David Perron. Sundqvist spun around quickly, with no resistance from the Anaheim defense, and whipped the puck past the Anaheim goalie with 5 minutes, 15 seconds left in the opening period.
It marked only the eighth time in 23 games that the Blues had scored first in a game, and just the eighth time they’ve led after one period.
Known more for his penalty-killing abilities, Sundqvist has three short-handed goals in the NHL. But that was the first power-play goal of a career that spans parts of six seasons and includes 224 regular-season games.
After scoring twice in the opener against Colorado, Sundqvist went through an 18-game scoring drought, but now has scored twice in his last four games.
“It’s been frustrating,” he said after the San Jose game Saturday. “I feel like I’ve been getting a lot of scoring chances that I haven’t scored on, and I’ve been hard on myself in that department. I should have scored more goals at this point.”
In the second period, Sundqvist helped out in a couple of ways on the Blues’ second power-play goal of the night. For starters, he had a secondary assist — just the third power play helper of his career. Next, he stationed himself right smack in front of Gibson.
It was quite the screen. Brayden Schenn sent a screamer to the upper corner, near side, giving the Blues a 2-0 lead. This one came only seven seconds after Jakob Silfverberg was sent off for slashing Niko Mikkola, who was on a dash to the net.
Schenn’s team-high 11th goal gave the Blues two power plays scores in a game for only the second time this season. It happened previously on Feb. 18 against San Jose.
The Blues had a couple of excellent chances to make it 3-0 in the final seven minutes of the period. First Jordan Kyrou broke in on Gibson but was turned away in close. Then, Zach Sanford missed from the near slot, and then on an even better look off his own rebound.
It was Anaheim that scored next. In a scramble in front of the St. Louis net, Max Comtois got his team-high ninth goal of the season to make it a 2-1 game with 5:47 left in the period. Ryan O’Reilly had a chance to clear the puck but his attempt bounced off Comtois and in.
The game opened up in the closing minutes of the period, with both teams hitting iron: Nathan Walker off the post with 4:52 left for the Blues and Silfverberg off the crossbar with 30 seconds left.
The Ducks had most of the momentum to close out the second period and kept the pressure on the Blues to start the third period, repeatedly crashing the net and making Jordan Binnington work.
During one of those intense net-front sequences, O’Reilly pulled down Comtois, who was handful for the Blues on Wednesday. But the Blues killed off the holding penalty and O’Reilly had a breakaway coming out of the box. But Gibson made the save and it stayed 2-1 Blues midway through the third.
With 8:31 left it was the Blues’ turn to go on the power play when Jani Hakanpaa was sent off for tripping Sammy Blais. Wouldn’t you know it? The Blues did it again, scoring their third power-play goal of the night.
This time it was Sanford, practically diving at a loose puck at the front of the net to make it a 3-1 game. It was the first time the Blues had scored three power-play goals in one game since Oct. 24, 2019 against the Los Angeles Kings. That was the night Vladimir Tarasenko suffered a shoulder injury and Binnington stared down now-teammate Kyle Clifford, precipitating a mini-scuffle.
For Sanford, it was his sixth goal in nine games and his seventh of the season.
The Ducks scored their final goal an empty-netter with 8.7 seconds left.
