Ducks breeze by Flames, 8-3

In Anaheim, the Ducks broke out the offense in an 8-3 demolition of the Calgary Flames Wednesday.

Jakob Silfverberg (two goals), Corey Perry, Brandon Pirri, Jamie McGinn, Shea Theodore, Nate Thompson and Ryan Kesler scored for the Ducks in the rout.

The win pushed the Ducks into first place in the Pacific Division.

Ryan Kesler had one of the Ducks’ 8 goals – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“With the start we had, no one expected us to be where we’re at right now,” Silfverberg said of taking first place in the division. “We’ve been doing some good things lately. We’ve been playing good hockey. There’s a big benefit being first.”

The Ducks took a one-point lead on the Los Angeles Kings who were idle Wednesday but play the Flames Thursday.

“You give them a few freebies from the start, and you know it’s going to be a long game,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said. “Our goalies had a tough night. Nothing to take away from the Ducks, but in order to beat them you needs a few saves here and there.”

Hunter Shinkaruk (first NHL goal), Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie scored for the Flames.

Jonas Hiller got the start for the Flames but was gone early after yielding three goals and five shots.

“As much as I wanted him to have a great game against his former team, I don’t think that it was meant to be,” Hartley said. “They scored those three quick goals, and at the same time we’re coaching a full team here so you need to think of the goalies but you need to think about the rest of the bench. We thought that making a change; we thought we would give ourselves a chance to get back in the game.”

For the Ducks, the game plan was to get a fast start but perhaps this was not the expected quick start.

“We wanted to do that,” Coach Bruce Boudreau said of setting the tone early in the game. “It was the best thing that could’ve happened to us. It was against a goalie that hadn’t played in a long time. To get to him early, we knew his confidence would be shaken. To get that 3-0 lead, the way the next 30 minutes went, was important.”