Blues miss chances against Giguere

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- By the time Al MacInnis scored the first of his two power-play goals against Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Anaheim goalie had recorded the third-longest scoreless streak in modern NHL history.

Giguere came up short in his bid to become only the second to post four consecutive shutouts since the inception of the red line 59 years ago. But he stopped 44 shots Wednesday night as the Mighty Ducks overcame a huge shot differential to beat the Blues 4-2.

"I didn't know that it was the third-longest, but that's pretty sweet. I'm really happy about that," said Giguere, who trails only Bill Durnan and Turk Broda in the record book. Both of them are in the Hall of Fame.

"I never approach a game trying to get a shutout, because it involves too many things and you can't control everything," Giguere said. "So I approach every game the same way -- just try to make that first same and make as many as possible."

He had lots of chances as the Mighty Ducks were outshot 46-17.

Giguere, who never had more than 33 saves in any of his 12 career shutouts, had no chance on a 30-foot blur from the right circle by MacInnis that beat him high to the glove side at 16:52 of the second period with the Blues skating 5-on-3.

Thus, the streak ended after 100 consecutive saves spanning 237 minutes, 7 seconds -- following shutouts of Nashville, Washington and Pittsburgh.

MacInnis, an 11-time All-Star defenseman who has always had one of the NHL's hardest shots, had a season-high 10 shots on net. He scored his eighth goal on a slap shot from the right circle with 13:16 remaining.

"You know it's not going to be easy when a goalie's at the top of his game, so you do your best to get traffic in front of him and get as many shots as you can," MacInnis said.

The Ducks staked Giguere to a 4-0 lead by the 1:20 mark of the second period on a goal by Paul Kariya and power-play goals by Steve Rucchin, Petr Sykora and Adam Oates -- the last two with the Ducks skating 5-on-3.

Oates' goal was his first since signing with Anaheim as a free agent in July. He also had two assists, giving him seven points in 10 games after missing the previous 15 because of a broken left hand.

"The biggest thing is his presence on the ice," Kariya said. "He's a future Hall of Famer and everyone respects the way he plays the game. We all can learn a lot from him, and he'll leave an impact on this team for a number of years."