ANAHEIM — The Ducks were all smiles before the homecoming game of longtime mainstay Cam Fowler, but at the end of Friday night only he and his new club were grinning at Honda Center.
St. Louis prevailed, 4-3, despite a feverish push that saw the Ducks score twice late, including in the final minute, and come a sliver of a second from knotting the game at the buzzer.
This was effectively a four-point game in the wild-card race that moved the Blues into a points tie with the Calgary Flames for the final Western Conference postseason berth and dropped the Ducks seven points back of both teams.
Sam Colangelo, Frank Vatrano and Alex Killorn notched a goal apiece. Vatrano tacked on an assist and Terry contributed two. Lukáš Dostál had 18 saves in defeat.
Fowler, the Ducks’ all-time leader in games played by a defenseman, picked up two assists for St. Louis. Captain Brayden Schenn scored two goals, including an empty-netter. Alexey Toropchenko scored one goal and assisted on another by Zack Bolduc. Jordan Binnington turned away 20 shots.
The finale was electric, as the Ducks surged through the dying embers and appeared to have sent the game to overtime on Mason McTavish’s pop-in as the horn sounded. The goal was waved off initially and that decision was upheld upon video review, leaving the Ducks agonizingly close to a vital point and an opportunity at another.
Schenn’s empty-net goal with 1:47 to play was wedged between Vatrano’s 19th goal of the season with 3:02 remaining in regulation and Killorn’s tally, his 18th of 2024-25, with 43 seconds left.
Terry collected the primary assist on both goals, lofting a pass for Killorn in tight and making a brilliant play where he drove hard from the left-wing wall to the inner slot, drawing a crowd of four Blues defenders before his drop pass against the grain created Vatrano’s authoritative shot.
The Ducks completed an ignominious trifecta early in the third period. Having already allowed a soft goal and one off a turnover, they added a porous defensive play to the list at 5:21. Fowler feathered a lead pass for Bolduc, who had gained speed in the neutral zone and effortlessly split two Ducks defenders, Jacob Trouba and Pavel Mintyukov, to dart in on goal and bank the puck off Dostál and into the net.
After drawing two penalties in the first period and converting on one power play in the first period, the Ducks earned the only two man-advantage opportunities of the second period. It was St. Louis, however, that held a 2-1 edge through 40 minutes.
Jackson LaCombe’s pass for partner Radko Gudas eluded Gudas’ stick, setting up a dangerous three-on-two opportunity that turned lethal when Jordan Kyrou dished for Dylan Holloway, who found Schenn wide open for a rising shot and his 13th goal this season.
Out of the starting blocks, St. Louis had a faster start in terms of pace, shots, and the game’s first goal, but the Ducks picked up both steam and an equalizer as the period progressed.
They drew even with a power-play goal, 14:48 after the opening faceoff. LaCombe’s point shot glanced off Colangelo to keep both players hot. LaCombe has 10 points in his eight games and Colangelo extended his goal-scoring streak to three games.
The Blues had come out with greater gusto, punctuated by Toropchenko’s goal a mere 2:37 into the match. His ostensibly innocuous shot from well above the left circle clipped Dostál and then slipped through him to open the scoring.
Fowler, who was honored privately before the game as well as with a lengthy video tribute in the first period, assisted on Toropchenko’s goal.
More to come on this story.
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