In Calgary Wednesday night, the Anaheim Ducks got 29 saves from John Gibson in a 4-0 shutout over the Flames.
The Ducks have gotten hot at the right time and are 11-4-1 over the last 16 games and have climbed into the third spot in the Pacific Division.
Andrew Cogliano, Ondrej Kase, Hampus Lindholm and Francois Beauchemin had the 
Ducks’ strikes in the win.
“I think you just try to focus on what you can do every night, go out there and play your best hockey,” Lindholm said. “We have this in our own hands here. We just have to go out there and be determined and play our best kind of hockey this time of year.”
The Ducks improved to 38-24-12.
“When you’re trying to make the playoffs and you get the opportunity to put teams further behind you, you have to,” Cogliano said. “You can’t let teams creep back in. You have to try to distance yourselves as much as possible and we have to try to keep moving up. This is a big win for us. We’re obviously happy.”
The Ducks are one point up on the Los Angeles Kings and just three points back of the San Jose Sharks for the second spot in the division.
The Flames dropped to 35-30-10 with the loss.
“I would never question the fight in our team,” Calgary’s Matt Stajan said. “People outside of this room can say whatever they want, but I know every guy in this room … if they’re not out there playing for each other you don’t belong in this room, and I don’t feel that way at all.”
Calgary has lost four straight and trail the second wild card spot by seven points.
“For the most part we didn’t give them a whole lot and did a good job on limiting guys like [Johnny] Gaudreau and [Sean] Monahan who are pretty good players in terms of creating offense. We didn’t get too many shots (16), but it’s the first game of a road trip and a tough place to play. At the end of the day, it’s all about the score,” Cogliano said after the game.
[WATCH:Â All Ducks vs. Flames highlights]
Mike Smith got the start for Calgary but was given the hook after the second intermission.
“I thought we came out really strong. Obviously when you look at the score, it doesn’t look that way, and when you’re down 3-0 in the third and you’re chasing against a team sitting back, it’s hard to generate in this league. That’s a solid team over there,” Stajan said.
David Rittich relieved Smith and made four saves in the final frame.
“It’ll be tough right now to make up some ground and get points and try to take a spot,” Rittich said. “I’m not too sure what happened. A couple bad bounces. We have to be smarter than we’ve been.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.