The Ducks (15-9-1) close out their brief two-game road trip with a visit to St. Louis to take on the Blues (9-10-7). Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. PT and will air on Victory+ and KCOP-13.
Anaheim enters this game off a 5-3 loss to the Blackhawks. The team had a 3-0 lead in the first period and scored their first two goals in the first 47 seconds of the game. That feat, courtesy of Cutter Gauthier and Olen Zellweger, was good for the fastest pair of goals to begin a game in Ducks franchise history.
While the team accomplished their recent goal of getting off to quicker starts, they acknowledged that sustaining leads is their next point of focus.
“We’ve been preaching it all season how we need to come out firing,” Gauthier said. “It’s been too many times this season where we started the game down a goal or down two goals. I was really happy with our group to come out with a couple goals there. We’ve got to keep on building it, but it’s a full 60 we need.”
“I think after we got the 3-0 lead we didn’t do what made us successful,” head coach Joel Quenneville added. “We got careless with the puck and (thought) we could do whatever we wanted to do, and that changed.
“Whatever word you want to use. Certainly disappointed. That was one that you get it out of your mind because it could haunt you.”
Ahead of tonight’s game, Anaheim recalled Vyacheslav Buteyets from the Gulls and in a corresponding move, placed Lukas Dostal in injured reserve. Buteyets has combined for a 5-5-0 record in 10 appearances this season with San Diego and the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. He won his first career AHL game Nov. 26 at Tucson while stopping 39 of 42 shots.
The Blues are currently on a two-game win streak, most recently beating the Mammoth on Saturday in a 1-0 victory.
The team announced this morning that Jimmy Snuggerud will be placed on injured reserve with a wrist injury and Alexey Toropchenko is now week-to-week after sustaining burns to his legs while at home.
St. Louis recalled Aleksanteri Kaskimaki from the Springfield Thunderbirds and head coach Jim Montgomery said expect the forward to be in the starting lineup for tonight’s game against the Ducks if he arrives on time after travel delays.
