The Blues took a 1-0 lead 1:06 later. Oskar Sundqvist intercepted a pass from Ducks forward Alex Killorn in the Anaheim zone and fed Neighbours, who scored for the second straight game on a one-timer from the right circle at 9:25.
“I knew [Sundqvist] had a guy fronting him and if I could get myself available, he was going to make a play,” Neighbours said. “So I tried to slide to the backside there and ‘Sunny’s’ a passer, so I knew he’d slide it over.”
McTavish struck Sundqvist in the face with a high stick following a face-off in the St. Louis zone, resulting in a double minor at 12:13.
The Ducks killed the four-minute power play, but the Blues went back on a man-advantage eight seconds later. St. Louis scored 13 seconds into that power play when Jordan Kyrou fed Buchnevich for a backdoor tap-in for a 2-0 lead at 16:34.
“I think the penalties, the four-minute and the two-minute right after that, probably wasn’t a good situation for us,” Cronin said. “We weren’t getting into a rhythm.”
The Ducks had a two-man advantage for 41 seconds beginning at 18:11 of the first period but couldn’t capitalize.
“We’ve got to find ways to create more offense. I don’t think we’ve been doing enough,” Killorn said. “Guys, in the end, start turning it over a little bit too much, too. Trying to create something because we haven’t been creating enough. I forced one in the first period, in the defensive zone, that put us down 1-0. That was on me.”
