NHL - St Louis Blues @ Anaheim Ducks 3-4 SO - Friday, January 08, 2016

Ryan Getzlaf scored the shootout winner, Ryan Kesler had two goals and the Ducks rallied for a 4-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at Honda Center. Getzlaf, who had not taken a shootout attempt this season, made a deke and avoided goaltender Brian Elliott's attempted poke check before lifting a backhander into the net to start the fourth round. Anaheim goaltender John Gibson (25 saves) ended the game by stopping Kevin Shattenkirk's wrist shot.
Kesler opened the scoring 3:00 into the first period and tied the game 4:32 into the third with a power-play goal. It was his first multigoal game since he scored twice at the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 5, 2014.
St. Louis lost Paul Stastny and Jay Bouwmeester less than a minute apart in the first period with upper-body injuries, then had goaltender Jake Allen leave 7:03 into the second period. Stastny left the game at 13:56, shortly after being hit in the head by a deflected shot. Bouwmeester followed 36 seconds later after being crunched against the boards by Getzlaf. Allen was removed a few minutes after a collision in the crease with Anaheim douche-bag Corey Perry. He was replaced by Elliott, who made 25 saves.
Coach Ken Hitchcock had no updates on any of the injured players following the game. It was the third straight game in which St. Louis lost in overtime or a shootout after failing to hold a two-goal lead, but Hitchcock said this game was nothing like the past two.
The Blues' push began when Ryan Reaves and Troy Brouwer scored early in the second period to put them ahead. Fabbri made it 3-1 on a breakaway at 16:25.
But Perry answered with a snap shot off the rush 31 seconds later to cut the deficit to one goal, and the momentum carried over through the rest of the game.
Kesler tied the game by beating Elliott with a wrist shot from near the right faceoff dot during the second of Anaheim's three third-period power plays. The trio of power plays allowed Anaheim to have their top players out on the ice for a significant amount of time and it made all the difference. The Ducks outshot the Blues 19-2 in the third period and 3-1 in overtime.
There's not a lot of time to regroup for St. Louis; the Blues play the second half of a back-to-back Saturday at the Los Angeles Kings.

Blues Quotes

Ken Hitchcock: "This was a playoff game. This was a sudden-death, elimination playoff game. One of the grittiest efforts by our team all year and I'm sure they've got to be pretty proud of their effort too. It was a [heck] of a hockey game. We ran out of bodies and they had a little bit more in the tank at the end. We pushed them so hard we nearly pushed them out of the building in the second period. And then they came back and pushed us. We ran out of gas. We'll refuel and see who we can get in."
Robby Fabbri: "We sort of took our foot off the gas little bit. We did a good job there trying to hold them off for the rest of the game, but we need to make sure that we're coming out and matching them."