Mason McTavish scored and Alex Killorn collected his third point as a Duck, but there would be no dramatic third-period comeback tonight at Honda Center as Anaheim fell 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues.
The loss, Anaheim's third in a row, dropped the club to 9-9-0 on the season and 4-6-0 on home ice. The Ducks continue a four-game homestand Wednesday night against Montreal.
McTavish scored the lone goal for Anaheim, his eighth of the season, cutting the deficit to two midway through the second period. Killorn and Max Jones added assists. John Gibson made 28 saves.
Gibson appeared in his 442nd career game in the loss, all played as a Duck, tying Guy Hebert for the second-most by a goaltender in franchise history. He now sits five games shy of matching Jean-Sebastien Giguere for the Anaheim record.
Jake Neighbours, Pavel Buchnevich and Alexey Toropchenko scored for the Blues, who split a Southern California back-to-back and improved to 9-7-1 on the season. Joel Hofer earned the win in net, turning aside 30-of-31 Anaheim shots.
Anaheim appeared to take an early lead just over eight minutes into the action when Urho Vaakanainen tracked down a dump-in, took the puck to the net and tucked a bid from in tight past Husso. St. Louis would challenge for offside though and the goal was nullified after review, taking away Vaakanainen's first NHL goal for the second time this week.
Instead St. Louis would strike first just over a minute later, capitalizing on an Anaheim defensive turnover with Neighbours beating Gibson from the slot.
Neighbours has goals in back-to-back games, his 10th and 11th career NHL goals.
Buchnevich doubled the visitors' advantage later in the frame on the second of consecutive St. Louis power plays, tapping in a backdoor pass from Jordan Kyrou as Gibson lunged across his crease.
Now in his third season with St. Louis, Buchnevich has collected eight points in his last six games. He co-leads the club in goals and ranks second among team leaders in points.
The lead hit temporarily three early in the second after a tough bounce for the Ducks, as the puck hit Terry in the slot and kicked right to Toropchenko, who turned and swept it around Gibson all in one motion.
McTavish would put the Ducks on the board a couple shifts later though, taking advantage of a St. Louis turnover created by Killorn in front of the net with a backhand over Hofer's glove.
