St. Louis erased a brief first-period deficit and dismantled Anaheim across 40 dominant minutes, turning a tight opening frame into a wire-to-wire structural win. This STL-ANA blowout came down to three compounding factors: power-play execution, goaltending margin, and a scoring depth Anaheim could not match.
⚡TURNING POINT
Holloway's second power-play goal 81 seconds into the third extended the lead to 6–2 and ended any theoretical comeback path, but its true decisiveness lies in timing: it came immediately after the puck dropped on the final period, collapsing Anaheim's last window of re-entry before it could open.
🏆WHY STL WON
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Special teams were the primary lever: STL converted 2-of-5 power plays (40%) while Anaheim went 0-of-4, a four-opportunity shutout that directly cost ANA two goals and yielded two for St. Louis.
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Scoring was distributed across six skaters contributing multi-point games, making it impossible for Anaheim to key on any one source and shut down production.
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Hofer conceded 0.70 goals below league average on 27 shots — that margin removed any margin for error Anaheim might have exploited in a tight game.
📉WHY ANA LOST
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Dostal conceded 3.10 goals above league average on 29 shots — in a four-goal game decided by two power-play conversions, that margin was the difference between a contest and a blowout.
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Anaheim's power play generating zero goals on four opportunities meant every penalty absorbed by St. Louis cost nothing, removing the primary equalizing mechanism available to the home team.
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Offensive depth failed entirely beyond Poehling and Viel; no other Anaheim skater registered a point, leaving the team without the secondary scoring needed to sustain pressure after STL seized control in period two.
Three Stars
Philip Broberg1st
STL, D
0G 2A 2PTOI 23:04
Operating at plus-1 over 23-plus minutes, Broberg's assist volume from the blue line fed both Thomas and Holloway multi-point games, anchoring St. Louis's offensive structure throughout.
Robert Thomas2nd
STL, C
1G 2A 3PTOI 18:20
Thomas generated a goal and two assists including a power-play setup, making him the connective tissue in St. Louis's most dangerous sequences.
Ryan Poehling3rd
ANA, C
1G 1A 2PTOI 12:01
Poehling produced both of Anaheim's points through direct involvement in each goal, accounting for the entirety of meaningful ANA offensive output in just 12 minutes of ice time.
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Anaheim's power play going 0-for-4 while surrendering two man-advantage goals sealed a structural defeat that Dostal's 3.10-goals-above-average margin made irreversible by the second intermission.
