Blues hand Ducks seventh straight home loss

ANAHEIM -- The St. Louis Blues handed the Anaheim Ducks their seventh consecutive home loss, 5-1 at Honda Center on Wednesday.

Five players scored for the Blues, who limited Anaheim to 13 shots, the fewest in a game by any team this season.
"If we play hockey like that, we're going to win our share of games," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said.
WATCH: [All Blues vs. Ducks highlights]
Zach Sanford, Vladimir Tarasenko, Oskar Sundqvist, Tyler Bozak and Sammy Blais had goals for the Blues (22-22-5). Rookie Jordan Binnington made 12 saves and is 5-1-1 in his first seven NHL decisions.
Daniel Sprong scored and John Gibson made 26 saves for the Ducks (21-21-9), who haven't won at home since defeating the Dallas Stars 6-3 on Dec. 12. Anaheim enters the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend 2-10-4 in its past 16 games since a 4-2 road win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 17.
The Ducks ended a 12-game losing streak, the longest in their history, with a 3-0 win at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday and made four trades in three days last week. They won back-to-back games against the Wild and New Jersey Devils, but have been outscored 8-1 in consecutive losses to the New York Islanders and Blues.
"The bottom line is, we had a team come in here and outwork our hockey club tonight," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We're not going to accept that."
The Blues scored five straight goals after the Ducks took a 1-0 lead on Sprong's goal at 6:44 of the first period.

Tarasenko tied it 1-1 at 10:34 with his 17th of the season, and Sanford put the Blues ahead 2-1 at 2:04 of the second period with an unassisted goal, knocking his own rebound past Gibson after intercepting a pass from Sprong.
"They turned it over at our blue line, so I got a good lane all the way," Sanford said.
Sundqvist was wide open when he took a pass from Pat Maroon in the slot and scored at 7:41 to make it 3-1.
"Carrying the puck, moving my feet a little more and having confidence with the puck does a lot of things in the NHL," Maroon said. "It goes a long way."
Bozak, playing his first game after missing the past nine with an upper-body injury, gave the Blues a 4-1 lead at 8:42 of the third period. Blais scored 34 seconds later to make it 5-1.

Chad Johnson relieved Gibson at 10:35 and made one save.
The Ducks have been outscored 24-3 after the second period of their past 16 games.
"We just seemed like we were slower than they were, and they had more jump and more energy, and they owned the puck," Carlyle said. "We didn't have the puck and we hung our goaltender out to dry."
The Ducks had been outshot 8-0 before Sprong picked the top corner with a wrist shot from the slot to put Anaheim ahead. It's his eighth goal in 22 games since being acquired by Anaheim in a trade with the Penguins.
The Ducks were without their top two goal-scorers for the third consecutive game. Jakob Silfverberg, who leads Anaheim with 12 goals, missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury sustained Jan. 15 at the Detroit Red Wings. The Ducks are hopeful he will return for next game, Feb. 2 at the Winnipeg Jets.
Forward Ondrej Kase
will be out 5-6 months with a torn labrum
sustained in the win against the Wild on Jan. 17. He will have surgery Jan. 30. Kase had 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in 30 games
Another forward, Pontus Aberg, also scored 11 goals for Anaheim before being traded to the Wild on Jan. 16.

They said it

"When we're on our toes like that and we're shooting pucks and attacking and winning puck races, I know we're ready to go." -- St. Louis coach Craig Berube
"There are just certain things that we're just not executing. Just being sloppy or a little too slow with our plays, with the puck and without the puck, allowing teams too much time, so it's something that after the break, we've got to come back and get those things sorted out." -- Ducks forward Derek Grant

Need to know

O'Reilly extended his point streak to six games (eight points; two goals, six assists) in his 700th NHL game. Tarasenko has eight points (five goals, three assists) in the past eight games. … Anaheim forward Ryan Kesler injured his hip against the Red Wings and hasn't been skating. The 34-year-old had hip surgery on June 8, 2017; he missed the first 2 1/2 months of last season and was never 100 percent after his return. Sprong has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past seven games. The Ducks were outshot 13-2 in the opening period, their fewest shots in that period this season.

What's next

Blues: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 2 (7 p.m. ET, FS-O, FS-MW, NHL.TV).
Ducks: At the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 2 (7 p.m. ET, SN360, SNW, PRIME, NHL.TV).