In Calgary, the Anaheim Ducks continued to play spoilers on Friday night in a 3-1 win over the Flames.
Derek Grant potted an empty-net goal with two seconds left on the clock to seal the win for Anaheim.
John Gibson made 34 saves in showing off that he gets even a modicum of offensive support he can still win games.
Gibson set a franchise with 11,837 career saves with Anaheim.
“I just found out after the game,” said Gibson, who leads the NHL this season with 1,518 saves and has won four of his past six starts. “It’s cool to be in the same category as those guys, some of the greats that have been here. It’s an honor, and hopefully [I] just keep going with it.”
The Ducks improved to 21-35-9.
Mikael Backlund was the lone striker for the Flames, his second period goal at 6:43 gave the Flames a 1-0 advantage.
Backlund’s goal came off the power play.
Max Comtois scored 63 seconds later to tie the game, 1-1, for the Ducks.
“It’s been such a tough year for our group that I think we just want to win,” Comtois said. “We don’t like the fact that we’re at the bottom of the standings. We don’t like the fact that it’s been like that for the last three, four years. We have a really proud group and a lot of character on this team. We just want to win and whoever’s in front of us, we want to beat them.”
The goal came off a tip-in of a shot from Frank Vatrano at the point.
“Frank found a good shooting lane and it just kind of hit me in the shin pad,” Comtois said. “Kind of exchanged shin-pad goals. It’s always good. Frank’s got a good shot, and my job is just to go to the net, and I was fortunate that it hit me.”
Calgary dropped to 29-24-13, and lost a chance to gain ground on the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Calgary was 1-for-2 on the power play, Anaheim did not have an opportunity with the extra skater in the game.
“It’s not acceptable,” Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “It’s happened quite a few times this year. It doesn’t matter who our opponent is, we have to play better than the opponent every night and focus on ourselves. We’ve been talking about it.
“I mean, Dallas and Minnesota are two great teams and we come up with two wins on the road. Then we come here and we kind of [stumble] against a team I feel like’s not at our standard. We need to find ways to win these games and get these two points.”
The Flames have gone cold, with a 2-4-2 record in their last eight matches.
“I’m so frustrated,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. “We didn’t score. Honestly, that’s the easy way to say it. We just didn’t score today. We had a lot of looks, especially in the third. We’re dominating the game in the third. We just can’t get that tying goal or the leading goal. It’s frustrating. I don’t know. It [stinks].”
Brett Leason scored what would be the game-winner at 11:33 of the middle frame.
The goal came off a rebound left in the crease.
Jacob Markstrom made 15 saves in the loss.
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