Ducks grounded in Calgary

In Calgary, the Flames’ Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves in a 6-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.

Elias Lindholm hit for a double in the win.

“We just play, follow the system, and everyone’s buying in,” Lindholm said. “We just do the same things over and over again and eventually, the teams are wearing out and we take over the games.”

The Flames improved to 28-13-6.

Calgary took a 1-0 lead off a strike by Dillon Dube right after the Flames killed a double minor.

“It’s obviously huge,” Rasmus Andersson said. “You never want to start the game with that many PKs and for that long, but the PK did a really good job and we’ve been good on the PK lately.”

Sonny Milano and Isac Lundestrom  were the Ducks’ goal scorers.

“I think we had spurts again of showing our game and showing that against teams like that,” Anaheim’s Kevin Shattenkirk said. “Really down the stretch here it’s going to be harder and harder to play teams, teams are going to get tighter and play their best hockey and play their most structured hockey and we have to find ways to push through that and score goals and win.”

Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane, and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for Calgary.

“Even after the first it’s 2-0, I think we had some good opportunities that we obviously didn’t score on,” Shattenkirk said. “At the end of the day, it’s still 2-0. That’s a tough lead to come back on, especially against a team like that. That lapse we had in the second is really what shot us in the foot.”

John Gibson got the start for the Ducks, he yielded four goals and made 16 saves through the midway point of the second period.

“I’m big on odds and percentages,” Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said. “The chances that we were going to come back were low, so I’d rather have [Gibson] rested and ready for [Thursday].”

Anthony Stolarz, made 21 saves in relief.