DUCKS’ COACH Randy Carlyle wasn’t happy with the end of the game Friday against St. Louis (Flickr photo/Mark Muano).

By Pete Zarustica

Football, it’s said, is a game of inches. For the Anaheim Ducks and St. Louis Blues Friday night, it was a game of seconds. Twenty of them, in fact.

Joel Edmundson scored with 20 second remaining in the third period to lift the Blues to a 4-3 win, and stop the Ducks’ winning streak at two.

In a back-and-forth game at Scottrade Center, the Ducks trailed twice, led once and ended up with a 35-20-10 record and still in second place in the NHL Pacific Division.

“To lose the game with under 20 seconds to go [19.8]l, it’s very disappointing on the road,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “That’s extremely disappointing. We didn’t really get any reward. Even a point would have been a big difference immensely for us.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the first, Anaheim rallied to the lead on goals by Rickard Rakell (his 28th of the season) and Chris Wagner (fourth) to take a 2-1 lead. St. Louis scored the next two to grab a 3-2 lead.

Jakob Silfverberg got the equalizer on a power play (his 19th goal of the season) in the first 25 seconds of the third period, setting up Edmundson’s deciding heroics.

John Gibson, coming off an injury, performed well for Anaheim, recording 31 saves in goal. The Ducks are next in action at home on Sunday, playing the Washington Capitals (44-15-7) at Honda Center.