Ducks Sent on an Early Vacation

Two big contributions from a player on the skids put the St. Louis Blues back in the playoff picture.

It also officially eliminated the Mighty Ducks from the playoff race a season after a magical run to the Stanley Cup finals.

Jamal Mayers scored the game-winner with his first goal in 18 games, and resisted retaliating on a charging call that helped set up the tying goal in a 3-2 victory over Anaheim on Thursday.

The Ducks are the fifth team in NHL history to fail to make the playoffs the season after reaching the Cup finals. The last team to do that was the Carolina Hurricanes last season.

“It’s been a while,” Mayers said. “It’s nice to contribute.”

Chris Pronger had three assists for the Blues, who have 83 points and are tied with the Edmonton Oilers for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference with six games to go in a tight four-team battle for the last two positions. At stake for St. Louis is its streak of 24 consecutive postseason appearances, the longest current run in professional sports.

“Definitely, we’re aware of it,” forward Pavol Demitra said. “We’re playing for the people. We’ve got great fans and everybody is expecting us to make it.”

The Blues were two for three on the power play after going 0 for 10 the previous three games.

Mayers had one assist since his last goal, a bad-angle game-winning goal in a 4-2 victory over the Coyotes on Feb. 16. He also entered the game with a minus-20 rating, by far the worst on the team, before scoring on a deflection of a Pronger slap shot at 8:26 of the third period.

He decided against retaliation after Vitaly Vishnevski of the Ducks slammed him into the boards late in the second period and was whistled for charging.

“Cooler heads prevailed,” Mayers said. “I didn’t do anything unwise.”

Pavol Demitra had a goal and an assist and Tkachuk also scored for the Blues, who finished the season series 2-1-1 against the Ducks this season.