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Ducks’ late-season slide reaches 4 games with loss to Blues

April 4, 2026

ANAHEIM — After a 6-2 bruising from the St. Louis Blues on Friday night at Honda Center, the Ducks’ aspirations of winning their division were in muddy waters.

With the title in their grasp, the Ducks have greased up their fingers, fumbling into a four-game winless slump. That’s come just as the Edmonton Oilers have ripped off a season-best five straight victories to usurp the Ducks’ position atop the Pacific. With six games left in the regular season, the Ducks are stuck in their second-longest funk of the campaign.

After their most precipitous plummet, a nine-game freefall, the Ducks reeled off seven straight wins sans some of the biggest producers.

“The season’s weird, especially with us. We’ve been so streaky this year,” center Ryan Poehling said. “It’s just the urgency. Everyone knows the scenario that we’re in. The last two games we played good hockey, tonight it wasn’t the case.”

The Blues took the rubber match of the season series and both meetings in Anaheim. They won for the fifth time in seven chances to keep their flickering playoff hopes from being extinguished ahead of a home-and-home set against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.

Poehling and Jeffrey Viel scored for the Ducks, who didn’t find the Blues’ net in the final 43:59. Lukáš Dostál surrendered six goals on 29 shots, with culpability to spread around between him and his defense.

Robert Thomas had a goal and two assists to headline an effort in which six St. Louis skaters turned in multipoint displays. Dylan Holloway tallied twice on the power play. Pius Suter and Colton Parayko each notched a goal and an assist. Jonatan Berggen picked up a goal. Jake Neighbours and Philip Broberg, who extended his scoring streak to seven games, both tacked on two helpers. Joel Hofer made 25 saves.

“The two times we’ve been in this building have been two of our five best performances of the year,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.

Holloway’s second man-advantage marker in Friday’s romp cushioned the Blues’ lead to 6-2 just 82 seconds into the third period. He authoritatively one-timed a Thomas’ seam pass, which traveled from the middle of the left circle to the bottom of the right one.

“We’re a young team … for a lot of these guys it’s their first time going through it,” said Poehling, who was part of a Philadelphia Flyers roster that was in a firm playoff spot with 11 games to go but lost nine of them to miss the 2024 postseason cut. “We know we need to be urgent, it’s just a lack of doing it.”

The only two goals of the middle frame extended the Blues’ lead to 5-2.

Parayko’s pellet from the top of the right circle beat Dostál short side with 3:10 left on the clock.

At 3:08, Suter had made it 4-2 with a backdoor goal fired into a wide-open net after a chaotic and disorganized defensive sequence by the Ducks. An uncovered pinch by Ian Moore created a jail break and, to compound matters, Moore was an onlooker as Suter hammered the puck.

In just 4:28 of ice time to that point, Moore was on for three even-strength goals against, finishing with a -3 rating. He was also on for three of four goals against (the final three) during Wednesday’s implosion in San Jose.

The first period was a seesaw affair wherein the Ducks struck first, trailed by a goal, pulled even and then headed to the dressing room down one.

A back pass by Chris Kreider, who has one goal in 14 games, for Leo Carlsson went off Carlsson’s skate, sending Suter the other way on a three-on-two rush. He found an open Berggen in the slot with 1:16 remaining.

The hosts had leveled the score at two after Poehling beat former Duck Cam Fowler wide and then flipped a backhanded saucer pass to Viel, who chopped home his third goal of the season.

Poehling opened the scoring 1:51 into the match after winning a faceoff and then tipping a precise shot from Mason McTavish, who was aiming for Poehling’s blade.

Poehling already has a career high in points and is one shy of his personal best for goals.

The Blues got a tying goal from Thomas at 5:24 and he earned the secondary assist on their first go-ahead goal, a power-play conversion from Holloway at 11:18.

On his goal, Thomas swooped into the middle lane to dust McTavish and receive a slick feed from Broberg that sent him toward a vulnerable Dostál with speed for a rising shot. With the extra man, he reversed the puck to key the two-man game between Neighbours and Holloway, who snuck a shot under Dostál’s left pad.

Thomas has seven points during a four-game scoring streak for the surging Blues, who have risen from the dead after the Olympic break.

“You see the coverage on the first goal, it’s a three-on-three eventually, and it turns into a breakaway that’s uncontested. Those types of plays can’t happen,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said.

The Ducks will be in action again Saturday, welcoming the Calgary Flames for the second date of their five-game homestand. They’ve beaten Calgary three times in 2025-26, twice in overtime and once in a shootout.

“Let’s find a way to take care of our business, and we’ve got a lot of business to take care of here,” Quenneville said.

Orange County Register

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Ducks’ late-season slide reaches 4 games with loss to Blues

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