While the cinema seems to be all about remakes, hockey fans in Anaheim hadn't seen very many reboots of the comebacks this year after watching so many over the previous seasons.
Ryan Kesler scored a pair of goals and Ryan Getzlaf had the shootout winner as the Anaheim Ducks rallied to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in a shootout Friday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks overcame a crater of a second period where they were outshot 17-5, limiting the Blues to just 11 shots in the other 45 minutes of action to send the visitors to their fifth straight loss after holding a lead going into the third. For the game they outshot St. Louis 39-28 and had a 49-35 even strength attempts edge.
The second line got things going early, first pouncing on a turnover behind that net that set Carl Hagelin up in front only to be denied point blank. The very next shift Kesler opened the scoring, looping around the net and curling to the slot, snapping a wrist shot five-hole to open the scoring three minutes into the game.
Despite losing Paul Stastny after he took a redirected puck off the side of his head, and Jay Bouwmeester following a flattening hit from Getzlaf in the first period, the Blues came out strong in the second period and swung the score. First Ryan Reaves beat John Gibson five hole off a near wing shot, then Troy Brouwer put the visitors ahead picking the top short side corner. Goalie Jake Allen would leave the game for the Blues as well, replaced by Brian Elliott just over seven minutes into period two. Anaheim could only generate two shot attempts through the initial 11:25 of the middle frame when Rickard Rakell finally got their first shot on goal.
Kesler touched off a conflagration, hitting Jori Lehtera square in the chest that Vladimir Tarasenko took exception to, leading to the two scrapping just past the midway mark. After the fighting majors elapsed Robby Fabbri made it 3-1 as Alex Pietrangelo spotted him break in from the far wing having just hopped off the bench, then dragging across the slot backhand and sliding the puck home. But Corey Perry responded just 31 seconds later, taking a Getzlaf feed between the circles and snapping it home past Elliott to send it to intermission with a 3-2 St. Louis lead and to give the hosts momentum.
It’d been 26 straight games where the Ducks had fewer power play chances than their opponents, but they drew the first three of the third period. With Dmitrij Jaskin in the box for a hook to give the second opportunity, Jakob Silfverberg found Kesler on the near wing with space to skate to the circle and roof a wrister glove side to knot the score 3-3. It would stay like that through the end of sixty, with Anaheim outshooting the Blues by a 19-2 margin in the final regulation session. Anaheim killed off all four odd-man opportunities for St. Louis, while converting on one of their five for the game.
After a cautious three-on-three session that saw Kesler sky the one breakaway of the five overtime minutes over the bar, Silfverberg and Getzlaf scored in the shootout and Gibson made stops on Tarasenko, Lehtera, and Shattenkirk to seal the win. The Ducks have now picked up 11 of a possible 14 points since Christmas, and have two wins in the first three of their current season-long eight game home stand.
The second place in the Atlantic the Detroit Red Wings are up next, invading Honda Center Sunday for a 5 PM puck drop.