Ducks blow early lead but win in OT, 5-4
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Corey Perry deflected a shot by Toni Lydman past Henrik Karlsson 2:38 into overtime Sunday to give the Ducks a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames at Honda Center to keep their playoff hopes alive.
It wasn’t easy. The Ducks took a 3-0 lead before the game was six minutes old but the Flames came back and led, 4-3, late in the third.
Bobby Ryan was stopped on a penalty shot in overtime. On the ensuing faceoff, Ryan Getzlaf kicked the puck back to Lydman, whose shot was deflected by Perry.
The Ducks scored the first three goals of the game in five minutes and 49 seconds and only five shots, providing an early end to goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff’s day.
Calgary forward Tom Kostopoulos scored two goals, former Duck Curtis Glencross contributed two assists, and the still-masterful Jarom Iginla put the Flames ahead, 4-3, with a power-play goal at 7:10 of the third period. But the Ducks pulled even with 2:01 left, when Teemu Selanne redirected a shot by Getzlaf, sending it through Karlsson’s pads.
The Flames have lost 13 straight games in Anaheim since Jan. 19, 2004.
Dan Ellis, back in goal for the Ducks after Ray Emery started two in a row, didn’t get a lot of help from his increasingly sloppy teammates, but he didn’t distinguish himself, either, at least until he stopped Iginla on a breakaway 1:26 into overtime.
Everything went right for the Ducks at the start as they built a 3-0 lead merely 5:49 into the game.
Perry intercepted a pass by Robyn Regehr behind Calgary’s net and quickly relayed the puck to Getzlaf, who needed two tries to settle the puck on his stick and lift a shot above Mikka Kiprusoff at 1:18.
The Ducks struck again at 3:36, with Regehr in the box for having hooked George Parros. Getzlaf passed to Teemu Selanne, who was near the right post when he backhanded the puck on net. It tricked through Kiprusoff but didn’t cross the goal line until Perry poked it completely over.
Defenseman Francois Beauchemin scored his second goal in 17 games with a blast from the left point at 5:49. Saku Koivu and Selanne got the assists, with Selanne earning the 1,326th point of his career to tie Gilbert Perreault for 31st in the NHL all-time scoring list.
That was it for Kiprusoff, who was replaced by Karlsson.
The physicality picked up as the period wore on, and the Flames took advantage of some lapses by the Ducks. They cut the Ducks’ lead to 3-1 at 18:52 on a 20-foot shot by Kostopoulos from the slot and nearly scored again when Ryan gave the puck away to Alex Tanguay to give the Flames winger a breakaway. Ellis stopped Tanguay’s shot with his glove with 10 seconds left in the period.
The Flames pulled within a goal at 8:04 of the second period. Beauchemin fumbled the puck in his own zone, allowing Kostopoulos to pounce on it. He passed to Curtis Glencross, in the right-wing corner, and Glencross sent a pass to Rene Bourque, who was steaming on in the left side. The puck went in off Bourque’s skate and the play was reviewed but the on-ice call was allowed to stand.
Calgary pulled even late in the second period on a 50-foot shot by Steve Staios and took the lead on a power-play goal in the third period. With Cam Fowler in the box, Iginla controlled the puck on the left-wing boards before moving to just above the dot in the left circle and placing a shot above Ellis’ right shoulder.
--Helene Elliott