Ducks’ woes continue in loss to Flames

In Calgary, Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves and the Calgary Flames downed the Ducks, 4-2, on Wednesday night.

Trevor Zegras and Adam Henrique were the Anaheim strikers.

Calgary’s Michael Stone  had a goal in his 500th NHL game.

“Took me a while to get there, so it’s a good feeling,” Stone said. “It’s not 1,000, but it’s a big accomplishment for me.”

The Ducks fell to 28-32-12. They have suffered through an ugly stretch of games going 1-10-3.

“We hate losing here,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “It doesn’t feel good and it eats at you.”

Elias Lindholm opened the scoring with a goal for the 1-0 lead to the Flames in the first period.

Johnny Gaudreau  had two assists on the night for the Flames.

“He was very good tonight, too,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “He was the best player on the ice, that’s for sure.”

The Flames improved to 42-19-9.

Tyler Toffoli pushed the lead to 2-0 in the middle frame.

“The Ducks came out pretty fast and had a couple shots early, but then I thought we took over and scored one,” Markstrom said. “We scored the second and then we are up 2-0.”

Stone scored in the third period for a 3-1 lead.

“Really good at the end,” Markstrom said. “That’s what you want to see as a goalie. That we are playing in their end and not just chipping the puck out and changing.”

Henrique scored in the third to get the Ducks within 3-2.

“They’re battling it out for a top spot,” Henrique said of the Flames. “There’s a lot of talk about them making a deep run and being one of the teams you have to go through to win the Stanley Cup.

Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.

“The first thing I always think is, hit it as hard as I can, because that’s what I’m halfway decent at,” Stone said. “I don’t want to say I close my eyes and shoot it because I do try to find a lane, but on that one, there weren’t many bodies in front, so I just hit it.”

Anthony Stolarz made 24 saves in the Ducks loss.

“Overall, our game was better than it has been getting to the front of the net, getting to our forecheck, winning more puck battles,” Henrique said. “Simply playing more as a group.”