ANAHEIM — A slog turned into a sprint as the home stretch of Wednesday’s match at Honda Center let the offensive fireworks fly as the Ducks rallied from two goals down to vanquish the Calgary Flames, 4-3 in overtime, and potentially extinguish their playoff hopes.
The Ducks (35-35-8, 78 points) have won two straight and are now back at .500 with four games remaining on their schedule. The Flames (37-27-14, 88 points) are five points back of the final Western Conference wild-card playoff berth, a tall order, especially since the Minnesota Wild defeated San Jose, 8-7, in the return of both Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek.
Cutter Gauthier scored two goals for the second straight game, including the tally that forced overtime and the OT winner, both of which were set up by Leo Carlsson. Trevor Zegras and Frank Vatrano also lit the lamp. Ville Husso made his second start since arriving via trade from Detroit, making 36 saves.
Captain Mikael Backlund, Yegor Sharangovich and Matt Coronato each had a goal for Calgary. Backlund added an assist and Joel Hanley chipped in a pair. Rookie Dustin Wolf stopped 19 shots.
Gauthier trailed a rush between Carlsson and Olen Zellweger, receiving the puck and picking his spot far side to complete the Ducks’ ninth third-period comeback of the season.
In the third period, a game that had just one goal through nearly 52 minutes saw five scored in the span of 4:23.
Carlsson set up Vatrano alone in the right circle for a no-doubt one-timer at 16:03 and eight seconds later a center-ice faceoff win set the wheels in motion for Carlsson to set up Gauthier on the left side.
Coronato appeared to have sealed the Ducks’ fate when he swiped in Backlund’s rebound for his third goal and fifth point of the season series, which Calgary won 3-1, but the Ducks had other plans.
Gauthier, who had been aggressive and dangerous throughout the evening, rang the post with a shot with just under six minutes to play.
Calgary earned its second edge of the night with 6:16 on the game clock. It was the sort of simple, direct play that the Ducks have tried to emulate at times, with multiple shot attempts and recoveries. The last one, a low-flying bid off Husso’s pad by Joel Farabee, created a backhanded putback goal for Sharngovich.
The Ducks had finally solved the former Junior King Wolf, with 8:11 left in regulation.
First, Mason McTavish’s forecheck pressure created a puck recovery from former Flame Oliver Kylington. His saucy seam pass found Zegras near the right faceoff dot, where he sold a pass to both the goalie and defenseman Jake Bean, before promptly placing a precise wrist shot above Wolf’s shoulder on the near side.
In the second period, perhaps the Ducks’ best chance of the frame came right at the end, when Gauthier’s intrepid foray shorthanded saw him take on Backlund and Rasmus Andersson effectively and then set up Isac Lundeström at the back post for a shot that was saved by Wolf.
Husso was solid again, making saves on sterling opportunities for Andersson and Nazem Kadri.
But at the 14:18 mark, Calgary broke a scoreless tie off an effort that started and ended with Backlund. He stole the puck back in the Ducks’ zone following a pinch by Joel Hanley, initiating a sequence that culminated in Backlund redirecting MacKenzie Weegar’s shot past Husso after getting position on Leo Carlsson.
Both the volume and quality of chances favored Calgary in a first period in which it doubled up the Ducks in shots on goal, 14-7.
The Ducks killed two more penalties and two more in in each of the final two frames. They went 6 for 6 on the penalty kill in consecutive games.
In all, they have quieted a respectable 24 of 28 short-handed situations in the past two weeks. They also had a 4-minute power play rescinded by an official review despite captain Radko Gudas being shaken up by a high stick from Adam Klapka. The officials said his motion was a follow-through and thus not a high stick.
The hosts had a power play later in the period. Their failure to score brought them to 2 for their past 30 on the power play.
More to come on this story.
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