After Strong Start, Ducks Overwhelmed by Blues

Jarkko Ruutu scored on his first shift as a Ducks and Teemu Selanne tallied the 625th goal of his career to put Anaheim up by two early in St. Louis. But the Ducks were overwhelmed by the Blues the rest of the way and were defeated 9-3 at Scottrade Center.

Ruutu, playing on a forward line with Brandon McMillan and Todd Marchant, tapped in a rebound 2:20 into regulation for his first goal with the team since being acquired from Ottawa on Thursday.

More than four minutes later in the period, Selanne intercepted a St. Louis pass and fired a shot past Ty Conklin to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead. It was the Finnish Flash's 19th goal of the season and No. 625 of his future Hall-of-Fame career (tying him with Joe Sakic on the NHL's all-time goals list). Ryan Getzlaf would add goal later in the first.

"It doesn't matter if you're at home or on the road," Getzlaf said. "We're going to have to go back to work."

The Blues would even the score just past the midway point of the opening period. getting two goals in a span of seven seconds from former Duck Andy McDonald and T.J. Oshie. Those goals would be the first two in a total of nine for St. Louis on the night.

Chris Stewart used to be a scoring machine against the St. Louis Blues.

Now, he's on their side.

The former Avalanche forward made a two-goal debut, helping energize a franchise coming off a pair of high-profile trades.

"It was a perfect start," Stewart said. "By the time I landed, I had three or four text messages from the boys and it was very comforting. It was an easy adjustment."

The 23-year-old Stewart totaled two goals in his last 14 games with Colorado after returning from a broken hand. Against the Blues, he has eight goals and 15 points in only nine career games.

"Yeah, a couple of the boys let me know before the game," Stewart said. "They were calling me the Blues killer, so I found that kind of funny."

It sparked a season best for scoring, topping the previous best by three goals. The Blues are 13th in the Western Conference, five points out of the final playoff spot, and in the last two days shook up the roster by trading Erik Johnson, Eric Brewer and Jay McClement.

"We lost three teammates, great guys, and it was a bit of a shock," said forward Andy McDonald, who had two goals and an assist. "It wasn't like we had a few days to adjust, it was on a game day, and I think the guys handled it pretty well."

Ducks goaltender Curtis McElhinney was yanked after giving up four goals on 11 shots in the first period in favor of rookie Timo Pielmeier.

"It doesn't matter who's in net," forward Ryan Getzlaf said. "It's not that they're bad goals. They're getting bounces against us because we're not working for them."

Ty Conklin had a shutout Friday at Buffalo after the Blues traded Brewer, who had been captain, to Tampa Bay. He was lifted at 16:42 of the first period after surrendering three goals on five shots with Ben Bishop finishing.

Notes: McDonald has eight goals and four assists in his last seven games against his former team. ... The Ducks had won six of their previous seven on the road. ... Fans cheered a reference to the Brewer trade during a pregame feature on the videoboard.