Here’s what ever-quotable St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said after the Ducks rallied for a 4-3 shootout victory Friday at the Honda Center, discounting a reporter’s notion that it was another in a series of letdowns for his team:

“This was a playoff game. This was a sudden-death playoff elimination playoff game. Both teams put in a hell of an effort. One of the grittiest efforts by our team all year. I’m sure they’ve got to be pretty proud of their effort, too. It was a hell of a hockey game.

“Both teams poured their hearts out. Both teams played as well as they could play. We ran out of bodies and they had a little more left in the tank at the end. We pushed them so hard, we almost pushed them right out of the building in the second period. And then they came back and pushed us. This was a playoff hockey game, a sudden-death playoff game.”