Ryan Poehling scored the tiebreaking goal shorthanded in the third period as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Calgary Flames 4-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.
Anaheim opened the scoring at 10:02 of the first period when Jackson LaCombe scored his first goal of the season on a power-play snap shot, assisted by Leo Carlsson and Mikael Granlund. Calgary responded at 15:03 with an even-strength wrist shot from Morgan Frost off passes from Matt Coronato and Simon Nemec. Frank Vatrano restored the Ducks lead with 45 seconds remaining in the opening frame, deflecting a shot past Dustin Wolf for his first goal of the year, assisted by Poehling and Noah Warren. Calgary tied the game again at 17:54 of the second period when Aydar Suniev scored his first goal of the season on an even-strength wrist shot set up by Coronato.
Poehling delivered the winning goal at 5:35 of the third period, snapping a shorthanded shot past Wolf off a feed from Pavel Mintyukov for his first goal of the season. Nikita Nesterenko added insurance for Anaheim at 17:03, poking the puck into the net at even strength with assists from Alex Killorn and Granlund to seal the two-goal margin.
Ville Husso made 27 saves on 29 shots to earn the victory in net for Anaheim. Wolf stopped 24 of 28 shots in the loss for Calgary. Special teams favored the Ducks, who went 1-for-2 on the power play, killed off all three Flames power plays, and scored a shorthanded goal.
The Ducks improved their regular-season record to 4-1-0 and won their second consecutive game. The Flames fell to 0-5-0 and remained winless through their first five games of the regular season.
Anaheim next visits the New York Rangers on Monday, October 19. Calgary remains at home to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, October 18.
