ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich each scored in the first 90 seconds, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Anaheim Ducks 7-2 on Sunday night.
Dylan Holloway and Jake Neighbours each had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Buchnevich, Radek Faksa, Mathieu Joseph and Oskar Sundqvist also scored for St. Louis. Jordan Kyrou had three assists, and Justin Faulk had two.
Jordan Binnington made 22 saves as the Blues won for the eighth time in 11 games (8-2-1) to pull into a tie with Vancouver for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, Nikita Nesterenko also scored and Mason McTavish had two assists for the Ducks, who lost for the fifth time in seven games. Lukas Dostal gave up five goals on 14 shots over the first two periods, and Ville Husso stopped 10 of the 12 shots he faced in the third.
Schenn scored his 16th goal of the season 41 seconds into the game, and Buchnevich added his 14th goal just 49 seconds later to give St. Louis an early 2-0 lead.
Schenn, honored by the Blues for playing in his 1,000th career game earlier this month, also fought Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba late in the first, earning a major for fighting and a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The start of the game was pushed back two hours after St. Louis was forced to spend Saturday night in St. Paul after playing Minnesota due to a mechanical issue with the team’s plane.
Takeaways
Ducks: Anaheim lost for the eighth time in 12 games (4-7-1) to fall eight points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference.
Blues: St. Louis attacked early and didn’t allow Anaheim to generate many scoring threats.
Key moment
Binnington stopped Trevor Zegras on a breakaway opportunity that would have cut Anaheim’s deficit to 3-2 in the second period 3:31 after Gauthier got the Ducks on the scoreboard.
Key stat
St. Louis went 3 for 4 on the power play, 3 for 3 on the penalty-kill and scored a short-handed goal.
Up next
Ducks visit Dallas on Tuesday, and Blues play at Nashville.