[0] THIS TIME, BLUES SHOOT DOWN DUCKS ANAHEIM WINLESS VS. CONFERENCE'S BEST TEAMS ST. LOUIS 4, DUCKS 2.

Byline: Frank Welch  Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - There are a lot of reasons the Mighty Ducks - barring something unforeseen - won't make the NHL playoffs this season.

Aside from costly defensive gaffes, offensive woes, injuries to key players and spotty goaltending, there is something far more telling to be found within the team's disappointing season. And it's found inside the numbers.

The Ducks are now 0-11-0-2 against the top six teams in the Western Conference following Wednesday night's 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues in front of an announced crowd of 14,600 at The Pond.

Anaheim (14-20-6-4), with one win in its last nine games (1-5-2-1), said goodbye to the Blues (28-7-4-1) - and not a moment to soon. The Ducks lost all four of their games against the Blues this season and were outscored 15-5 in the process.

Anaheim now is winless in 13 games against St. Louis, Colorado, San Jose, Dallas, Detroit and Vancouver. The Ducks also are 2-12-1-2 against the top eight teams and 4-14-5-3 against the 12 teams ahead of them in the 15-team conference.

The Blues, literally fighting off an inspired Ducks team in the final period, took a two-goal lead with 9:38 left in the game when Taylor Nash scored a short-handed goal.

The Ducks got within 3-2 with 14 minutes left in the game when Teemu Selanne scored his fourth goal in his last three games on the power play. Selanne had gone the previous 14 games without a goal.

St. Louis went up 3-1 two minutes prior to Selanne's goal when Bryce Salvador popped home a rebound off of a shot from Craig Conroy.

St. Louis, which held a 23-2 shot advantage three minutes into the second period, took the lead midway through the period when Pierre Turgeon scored a power-play goal. Turgeon's 19th goal came on the Blues 26th shot through 30 minutes.

The Ducks couldn't take advantage of three St. Louis penalties that came within a 57-second span of the latter portion of the second period.

Scott Young (and the Ducks Petr Tenkrat) went off with 3:06 left; the Blues' Al MacInnis followed 38 seconds later and Chris Pronger joined them 19 seconds after MacInnis went to the box.

But the Ducks, outshot 30-12 through two periods and 41-22 for the game, could only get off two shots on St. Louis goalie Brent Johnson before the period ended.

The last minute of Pronger's penalty carried over into the third period and Anaheim's best chance came when defenseman Niclas Havelid had his point-blank shot stopped by Johnson with five seconds left on the power play.

A minute later, Turgeon got into a fight with Anaheim's Tony Hrkac in a battle of two unlikely combatants. Hrkac, after taking a pair of Turgeon left hooks to the face, connected with a straight right-hand that appeared to knock out Turgeon. Hrkac and Turgeon had combined for just 20 penalty minutes this season.

The Ducks had to feel fortunate to escape the first period deadlocked 1-1.

St. Louis, which outshot Anaheim 15-2 in the first period, tied the game at 1-1 when MacInnis blasted a laser of a slapshot past goalie Guy Hebert.

MacInnis, who has the hardest shot in the league, one-timed a pass from Mike Eastwood just inside the blueline with 7:26 left in the first period. MacInnis had four shots in the period, including two other slappers that Hebert was able to stop.