Blues squander two-goal lead, fall 3-2 to Ducks in overtime

ST. LOUIS — Josh Manson scored in the opening minutes of overtime and the Anaheim Ducks rallied from a two-goal deficit and beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 Sunday night.

Cam Fowler and Adam Henrique scored in regulation for Anaheim, which completed a two-game sweep over the Blues. Anaheim won 4-1 Friday.

“Any time you can battle back in a game like that and get both points against a very desperate team is a great thing for our group,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said.

Ducks goaltender Anthony Stolarz made 37 saves in his first start of the season. Stolarz started his first game since March 11, 2020, also against St. Louis, in the teams’ last game before the COVID-19 shutdown. Stolarz won for the first time since Feb. 12, 2019, as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

“His mentality and his demeanor this entire time has been so positive,” Manson said. “He works hard and gives the guys what they need to get out of him. For him to have this opportunity tonight, and we come out with the win, it’s amazing.”

Manson scored his first goal of the season 1:42 into overtime on a pass from Stolarz. Anaheim won for the first time in 15 games this season when trailing after two periods.

“It kind of came up the wall and it felt like I was under a bit of pressure and didn’t want to turn it over, so I just ripped it back to Stolly.” Manson said. “They thought they could get a change, I think, because they had been out there for a bit and Stolly had the awareness to get it up to me, which was a great play.”

Jordan Binnington made 21 saves, and Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko scored for the Blues, who are 0-5-2 in their last seven home games.

“We just kind of let them hang around,” O’Reilly said. “I think we had a good first and kind of thought we had it going and we just took our foot off the gas a little bit and we let them hang around in the game.”

Fowler put Anaheim on the board 8:44 into the second period when he scored off a feed from Ryan Getzlaf past Binnington for his third goal of the season to make it 2-1. Getzlaf has recorded an assist in each of his last three games and is eight points away from tying Teemu Selanne’s franchise record of 988 career points.

Henrique tied the game 2-2 when he skated around Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo and backhanded the puck past Binnington 2:13 into the third period.

O’Reilly scored his 12th goal of the season 2:27 into the game on a feed from Tarasenko. It marked the first time St. Louis had scored first in its last nine games.

Tarasenko scored his second goal of the season on a power play with 4:01 remaining in the first period to put St. Louis up 2-0. It was Tarasenko’s first goal since March 12 against Vegas, snapping a seven-game scoring drought.

“We didn’t score enough goals,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “That’s the bottom line, but I think that second goal has got to be defended. Maybe we win the game 2-1. Right now, a mistake is going in, too much into our net and it’s’ hard to play mistake-free hockey.”

Vladimir Tarasenko after the #stlblues‘ loss to the Ducks: “There is no excuses. We have to fix the home games — we lose a lot of home games, which is unacceptable.” pic.twitter.com/qDtohpyFaI

— FOX Sports Midwest (@FSMidwest) March 29, 2021

GIBSON DOWN

Ducks G John Gibson was scratched and is day-to-day with an upper body injury. Gibson stopped 33 of 34 shots in Saturday’s 4-1 win over St. Louis. Gibson had missed the Ducks’ five games before Saturday with a lower-body injury. Ryan Miller backed up Stolarz.

“It’s a totally separate deal from his previous one,” Eakins said. “It’s a day-to-day thing and nothing that we’re worried very much about at all.”

THIN UP FRONT

RW Rickard Rakell left the game with an upper-body injury with 6:33 remaining in the second period after tripping over Blues LW Kyle Clifford, who had lost his balance on the ice. Rakell’s injury left the Ducks with 10 forwards as the team dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

SCHEDULE CHANGE

The NHL announced that the Blues play at Los Angeles on May 10 to makeup their game against the Kings that was postponed on March 15, with Los Angeles unable to leave Denver due to winter weather.

UP NEXT

Ducks: At Colorado on Monday night to conclude a five-game road trip.

Blues: Play at Colorado Friday night for the first of back-to-back games in Denver.