ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Steve Rucchin gave the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim a lead, then helped preserve it.
Rucchin scored his second goal of the game, a power-play tally with 15:06 remaining, as the Ducks edged the St. Louis Blues, 4-3, for their season-high third straight win.
Anaheim's captain, Rucchin flicked in a rebound from the edge of the crease with 55 seconds left on defenseman Bryce Salvador's roughing penalty. It was his eighth goal of the season and fifth in four games.
In the final minute, Rucchin blocked a point shot, then cleared a rebound from the low slot. The two goals gave him 400 points in the NHL.
"It's been a lot of hard work," Rucchin said. "Every hundred is a new milestone, it's always nice to get one. Unfortunately, I've missed a lot of games. At this point in my career, I should have a lot more points."
Defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski had a career-high three points on a goal and two assists for the Ducks, who have earned points in five straight games (3-0-0-2) to move into a first-place tie with Los Angeles in the Pacific Division.
"I thought that the star of the game was Vish," Anaheim coach Mike Babcock said. "He was our best player out there. ... Vish is one of the young guys who keeps getting better and better."
"I never think about my goals, I just play hockey," Vishnevski said. "I just play hockey, do my best and see how it goes. Winning is very important to me, not scoring points."
Petr Cajanek had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. St. Louis again was without two of its top three scorers as Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk served NHL suspensions.
Afterwards, the Blues took issue with the penalty to Salvador that led to Rucchin's game-winner.
"We had 10 grabs and four trips against us and no calls. It's pretty hard to play through that and not to get any calls," St. Louis captain Chris Pronger said. "The slew foots, the slashes and the trips, (the referee) lets go. And then he calls a cheap one on Salvy, and it costs us."
Early goals by Jason Krog and Vishnevski put Anaheim in front, but the Blues tied it before the end of the first period as Cajanek scored his fifth of the season and set up Pavol Demitra's power-play tally.
The Ducks regained the lead on Rucchin's second-period goal, but Eric Nickulas forged a 3-3 deadlock less than two minutes later.
