Despite the loss in St. Louis, Anaheim's young third line again provided a spark offensively, with two-point nights for Gauthier and center Mason McTavish. The duo has been the lifeline of the club's offense since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, combining for 25 points in those 13 games.
"He's a great player and a great dude off the ice, so it's been easy to connect with him," Gauthier said of his linemate. "It's been pretty consistently with him the last couple months. He's a great player and easy to play with."
"They're skating well," Cronin added. "[Nikita Nesterenko] brings more speed to that line, too. I thought they were solid throughout the game. They had several other chances as well. That was the line we really had going."
The loss dropped Anaheim to 29-31-7 on the season, eight points back of a Western Conference playoff spot.
"Games like that you need a goldfish memory," Gauthier said. "Forget about it. We have two games left on the trip and we need four points...People have mentioned it before but our playoffs started a few games ago. We need to do everything we can to get any points we can. Scratch and claw our way to any type of win."
The next stop on that trip is a tough test though, a matchup with a playoff-bound Dallas Stars squad that recently loaded up its roster for the postseason. Dallas got a jump on the trade deadline activity in February, sending a first-round pick to San Jose for veterans Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci. Granlund owns eight assists in his first 15 games with the team, while Ceci's +7 rating is second among Dallas blueliners since his arrival.
But the Stars' biggest move came on deadline day itself, when the club added All-Star forward Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for young center Logan Stankoven and two first-round picks. Rantanen owns four points in his initial four appearances as a Star, with tonight's matchup marking his first home game in Dallas.
Rantanen also collected his 400th career assist two nights ago in his first trip back to Colorado, where he spent the first nine years of his NHL career.
“I thought he handled it exceptionally well," Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer said. "When you think about, not just the past 24 hours in Denver, his last week to 10 days. He came in, met us on the road, hasn’t got settled yet, and then immediately came back in here to answer a lot of questions and get through the emotion of tonight. I’m proud of how he handled it and proud of how he played. He’s just going to get better and better for us.”
Dallas (42-21-3, 87 points) sits second in the Central Division, 11 points back of first-place Winnipeg.
