Recap: Nesterenko Nets First NHL Goal in 6-3 Loss to St. Louis

Nikita Nesterenko scored his first career NHL goal but the Ducks could not keep up with the St. Louis Blues tonight in a 6-3 loss at Honda Center.
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The setback dropped Anaheim to 23-40-10 on the season and 1-5-1 heading to the finale of an eight-game homestand. The Ducks have now lost four in a row immediately following a stretch where the club had earned points in nine of 11 games.

Nesterenko, Troy Terry and Ryan Strome scored for the Ducks, who have been limited to seven goals in that four-game skid. Terry registered Anaheim's lone multi-point game of the night. Jakob Silfverberg, Kevin Shattenkirk, Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras and Max Jones collected assists. John Gibson made 30 saves.
Kasperi Kapanen and Brayden Schenn each scored twice for the Blues, helping extend the club's point streak to five games. Jakub Vrana and Sammy Blais also scored. Jordan Binnington earned the win in net, his 23rd of the season and eighth in 13 career matchups against the Ducks, with 22 saves.
Neither side wasted any time getting their offense going eaely, as the first period saw plenty of scoring chances, three goals in the first five minutes of action and five total across the full stanza.
Anaheim went ahead first with a power-play goal, capitalizing on a missed opportunity by St. Louis with its suddenly red-hot second unit. Seconds after Blais lost the puck in tight and barreled over Gibson for a well-earned goaltender interference penalty, Shattenkirk set up Terry for a blast of a one-timer, which he blew past Binnington for an early Ducks lead.

Terry has points in six of his last seven games (3-5=8) and now sits one goal shy of Trevor Zegras for the team-lead this season (22).
Silfverberg collected the secondary assist, his seventh power-play point of the season and second in his last three games. After posting 10 points and a -19 rating in his first 47 games of the season, the veteran winger has 14 points and a +3 rating in his last 26 appearances. Silfverberg is also now just six points away from tying his former teammate Rickard Rakell for seventh-most in Ducks history.
St. Louis answered on the very next shift, 15 seconds later to be exact. With a loose puck under contention just outside the Anaheim blue line, Brandon Saad found Justin Faulk with a short pass to spring a 2-on-1 rush. Faulk then brought the puck to his backhand and slid a cross-crease pass to Vrana for the tap-in goal past an outstretched Gibson.
One of 35 NHLers with at least 30 goals and 30 assists this season, Kyrou now owns 6-5=11 points in his last 10 games. He has five points in three matchups against the Ducks this season.
Faulk leads Blues defensemen in points (8-29=37), goals and assists.
Anaheim restored the lead two minutes later on a special moment for Nesterenko, when the rookie took full advantage of a terrific pass from McTavish for his first NHL goal. As the Ducks worked on the forecheck, Terry poked a loose puck to McTavish open in the middle of the ice, where he turned and delivered a strike to Nesterenko at the side of the net. Nesterenko then fought through the check of a Blues defenseman Torey Krug to one-time the pass through the veteran blueliner's skates and by the sliding Binnington.

Nesterenko became the 311th goal scorer in Ducks history and the second Duck to score their first NHL goal this season (also Pavol Regenda).
McTavish co-leads NHL rookies in primary assists and ranks second in points (16-26=42) and total assists. His 42 points on the season are fourth-best by a Ducks rookie in franchise history, trailing only Zegras (61, 2021-22), Bobby Ryan (57, 2008-09) and Dustin Penner (45, 2006-07).
With a goal and an assist on the night, Terry posted his team-best 15th multi-point effort of the season.
The Ducks would be unable to turn that heart-warming momentum in a first intermission lead though as two Blues goals scored 17 seconds apart put the visitors ahead.
The first came off the stick of Blais, who danced around a Ducks defender at the blue line, cut to the slot and lifted a wrister over Gibson's glove for the tying goal.
Blais has four goals in his last five games and matched his career-high with eight on the season. The 26-year-old winger tallied five points in 40 games with the Rangers this season, but has 8-5=13 in 21 games since his trade to the Blues.
Schenn scored his first of two goals on the next shift, taking a long stretch pass from Kapanen on left wing and beating Gibson under the blocker.
With two goals on the night, Schenn now has three in his last two games (3-0=3) and four in his last five games (4-2=6). With two more points, Schenn will move into the top-20 among Blues all-time leaders.
Unfortunately for Anaheim, the opening minutes of the second would look a whole lot like the final ones of the first. Schenn scored St. Louis' fourth of the night one minute into the period as the fortunate finisher of a cross-seam pass by Faulk that Gibson had little chance to slide across in time to stop.
The two-goal night was Schenn's third of the season and clinched his seventh 20-goal season in the NHL.
Kapanen then scored 29 seconds later on a tough bounce for Gibson as Krug's point shot hit the St. Louis forward battling for position just outside the crease and carromed over the goal line.
The former Toronto and Pittsburgh forward, claimed on waivers earlier this season, added to the St. Louis advantage in the opening minutes of the third period, too. With the teams skating four-on-four, Kapanen carried the puck into the Anaheim zone and wove through the slot before lifting his bid over Gibson's shoulder to the short side for his second of the night.
Kapanen's goal was the 75th of his NHL career and his 12th of the season, his best single-season total of the last three years.
The Ducks would get one back a few minutes later but it would be far too little too late on this night, despite a heads-up play by Zegras and a fortunate bounce in the St. Louis crease. With the puck free beside the Blues net, Zegras banked it off the back of Binnington trying to hug his post and Strome then swiped home the rebound, bringing the Ducks back within three with 14 minutes to play.

Strome has scored in three of Anaheim's last five games and is now tied for fifth among team leaders in scoring this season.
Zegras' assist snapped a three-game scoring skid and moved him within one point of his second consecutive 60-point campaign. He leads the Ducks in points, goals and assists this season.
With the assist, Jones continued his career-high season in points (7-8=16) and assists. The big winger has six points in his last nine games, spent mostly playing on Anaheim's second line.
That would be as close as the Ducks could come on this night though as St. Louis held on for a 6-3 victory.
The Ducks conclude their eight-game homestand Monday night vs. Colorado.