NATE LATSCH
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Alexander Steen and Ryan Reaves scored, and Jake Allen stopped 24 shots in his second NHL shutout, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 2-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
The Blues (5-3-1) won their third consecutive game despite playing without four of their top nine forwards on Thursday. David Backes and T.J. Oshie sat out because of concussions, Paul Stastny was sidelined by a shoulder injury, and Joakim Lindstrom missed the game due to an illness.
The Ducks (8-3), coming off a 1-0 win at Chicago on Tuesday, played the second game of a four-game, six-day trip. Anaheim had won four straight against the Blues, including a 3-0 home victory on Oct. 19.
Steen tipped in a long shot from Carl Gunnarsson for his second of the season 4:29 in. Reaves made it 2-0 with his second at 2:03 of the third.
It was the second goal in three games for Reaves, a fourth-line enforcer, and his 13th in 203 career NHL games.
Allen (2-1) posted his first shutout since March 14, 2013 — a 3-0 win against the Coyotes.
The 24-year-old Allen stopped 13 Ducks shots in the first period, four in the second and seven in the third.
Allen made a clutch save on Corey Perry’s point-blank, power-play rebound attempt with 10:55 left. He also got some help from Maxim Lapierre late when the forward cleared a puck off the goal line with 1:54 remaining.
NOTES: The Blues had a moment of silence before the game for St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend, Ydelia Arvelos, who were killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on Sunday. . With Lindstrom out, the Blues went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. . Ducks D Mark Fistric left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury. Anaheim played with just five defensemen the rest of the way.
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