Perry rose (Ducks' only goal) and Perry fell in St. Louis.

There is certainly no shame in losing to the St. Louis Blues on the road, as the Ducks did last night, 3-1. After all, the Blues are arguably the league’s hottest team, have surged to the top spot Western Conference and have only lost four times in regulation at Scottrade Center (28-4-4) this year.

But excusable or otherwise, losses of any kind aren’t a luxury the Anaheim Ducks can afford right now. That’s especially true on a rare night when the NHL scoreboard was kind to Anaheim. The ninth-place Kings lost to the Blue Jackets, 10th-place Colorado went down at Nashville and San Jose managed just a point against Dallas (could have been worse since the Sharks led by a goal late in regulation).

You can look at that one of two ways: 1. It’s good the Ducks didn’t lose much ground in the race, or 2. They missed a golden opportunity to make a move. With the clock ticking on their season (14 games left and seven points back of eighth) we have to look at the latter.

Now these next two games on this trip – tomorrow at Dallas and Monday at Colorado – which were once looked at as critical, are now absolutely vital to the Ducks’ existence in this postseason hunt.

“Obviously the next two are going to be the biggest games of the year,” Teemu Selanne said. “We all know that. We all know what the number is going to be to make the playoffs and how many we can lose and how many we’ve got to win.

“But we keep fighting.”