Anaheim, CA (My Sportsbook) - Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 22 shots to help the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-1 victory over the
Calgary Flames at the Honda Center.
Scott Niedermayer and Mathieu Schneider each tallied a goal and an assist while Teemu Selanne scored for the Ducks, who have won five straight and 10 of their last 11 and hold a three-point lead over San Jose for the fourth spot in the Western Conference.
"We started well," said Niedermayer. "But then we had a little lull that sometimes happens. We were able to refocus and come out in the third and get back to our game a little bit."
Dion Phaneuf scored the lone goal for the Flames, who have dropped their last two games and sit two points behind Minnesota for first place in the Northwest Division.
"They are the defending Stanley Cup champions and they know how to win games," said Calgary forward Jarome Iginla. "We wanted to win that one cause we believe we might be playing them in the playoffs. But it doesn't ever feel good losing to those guys."
The Ducks grabbed a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the game on Mathieu Schneider's ninth goal of the season.
On the power play with a bit over six minutes to play, Anaheim took a 2-0 advantage as Scott Niedermayer's wrister from the slot found the back of the net.
It was a chippy first period with a total of 16 penalties being called, eight on each team. Also, Anaheim's Todd Bertuzzi was thrown out of the game in the period for fighting without his jersey being tied down.
Phaneuf got Calgary on the board in the second period when he accepted a feed from Iginla and fired a wrister that beat Giguere to the short side at the 7:09 mark.
The score remained that way until the final minute of the game when Anaheim sealed the win with a power-play goal. The puck was sliding around in front of the net before Chris Kunitz grabbed it and sent it over to the left side. Selanne held the puck for a moment before sliding it along the ice under the pad of Joseph with just 51.2 ticks left on the clock.
Game Notes
Calgary plays at Phoenix on Saturday...Anaheim wraps up its seven-game homestand against Ottawa on Monday...The Ducks went 2-for-8 on the power play while Calgary failed to score on its four chances.
