St. Louis Blues dominate Ducks 7-2 with rapid-fire goals

First, they scored fast.

Then they scored often.

The St. Louis Blues scored two goals within the first 90 seconds of the game and went on to bulldoze the Ducks of Anaheim 7-2 on Sunday, March 16, at the Enterprise Center.

“It’s not easy to go out there at the end of a three-of-four, traveling against a team that’s rested and beat them up 7-2,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.

The Blues were coming off a similarly dominating 5-1 win on the road at Minnesota On Saturday, March 15. It seemed like not even travel delays could effect the veteran bunch.

“As soon as they said our plane, something was wrong with our plane, we couldn’t get home and we were staying, I said we’re going to win tomorrow night,” Montgomery said. “It looks like our group’s looking for challenges now and looking to accept them and overcome them.”

Blues captain Brayden Schenn was honored by the Blues for playing in his 1,000th career game earlier this month. Within moments, he scored a goal within the first minute of the game.

It’s his second goal in as many days and his 16th of the season. Schenn has played eight seasons with the Blues and was a key factor in their Stanley Cup-winning season in 2019.

“[Schenn] not only embodies the spirit of the Blues,” Montgomery said, “there’s so many guys that have left an imprint and I think when you look at Brayden Schenn, how he plays the game; he has the skill, the will, he fights, he checks. So I tip my hat off to him because he’s made my job a lot easier.”

50 seconds after Schenn’s goal, the Blues had a 2-0 lead two minutes into the game thanks to a goal from Pavel Buchnevich.

The Blues turned the game into a rout with three goals in the second period, scored by Dylan Holloway and Radek Faksa, Mathieu Joseph. Jake Neighbours and Oskar Sundqvist also scored for St. Louis in the third period.

Jordan Kyrou had three assists, Justin Faulk had two, and goalie Jordan Binnington made 22 saves in front of the net for the Blues.

Cutter Gauthier and Nikita Nesterenko each scored a goal for the Ducks (29-31-7), who lost for the eighth time in 12 games (4-7-1) to fall under .500 and eight points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference.

After Vancouver lost to Utah 3-1 on Sunday, St. Louis has moved up to tie with the Canucks for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Blues have won eight of their last 11 games (8-2-1) and posted a .750 winning percentage since the 4 Nations Faceoff break on Feb. 22, behind only Montreal and Colorado for the third highest in the NHL. A run like this has been a surprise to Montgomery himself, who became the head coach midseason and took over a team that was struggling to find consistency.

“It’d be lying if I said yes,” Montgomery said. “It’s been fun to witness and watch. I thought it would have happened on January 10, if I’m gonna be honest and it didn’t. That’s why I can’t say that I saw this coming. This is good hockey.”

The Blues (33-28-7) travel to Nashville on Tuesday, March 18, before returning home to take on Vancouver on Thursday in a game that could possibly decide the course of the wild card race.