Ducks Enjoy Themselves on the Road : NHL: They defeat the Calgary Flames, 2-1, for their third victory in a row.

The Mighty Ducks learned their lessons and they learned them well, and on Monday they gave themselves their own reward, a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames, the team with the second-best record in the NHL.

It was a striking success for the Ducks, who have won three games in a row and seven overall. Their winning streak has come the hard way, on the road, against Pacific Division teams. And the victory against division-leading Calgary--whose record is second only to Toronto’s--came without a day’s rest after beating Edmonton Sunday.

“We said at the start of the season a playoff spot was our goal, and everybody laughed at us,” right wing Terry Yake said. “Well, we aren’t that far off.”

The Ducks trail fourth-place San Jose by two points and are only four behind the third-place Kings, whom they will play for the first time Dec. 2 at the Forum.

The Ducks had won only two of 13 games at one stretch, and had lost by a single goal seven times this season. Twice before, the Ducks had played well against the Flames, only to ruin their chances to win with errors at crucial moments. It was becoming the story of the season--good effort, untimely gaffe, one-goal loss.

“The difference was we played a full 60 minutes,” defenseman Bill Houlder said. “We’re a tired team, but we played intelligently. A tie would have been a loss to us, just like it was at home.”

With defenseman Al MacInnis firing his trademark slap shot--the same shot that gave Calgary a 2-2 tie in the final 20 seconds at Anaheim in October--the Ducks held on. Theoren Fleury buzzed around the net, and Joe Nieuwendyk tried his best, to no avail.

This time the Ducks fought off the Flames’ last frantic efforts, with Guy Hebert making four saves in the final 1:51 after the Flames went on a power play when Garry Valk was called for holding Gary Roberts.

The Ducks held off a 6-on-4 attack for 1:37 after Calgary pulled goalie Mike Vernon.

“I think the guys did a great job. We really wanted to win this one,” said Hebert, who made 33 saves. “We’ve been too close to beating this team twice before to let it slip away this time.”

Earlier this month, the Ducks lost, 5-4, in Calgary after allowing a shorthanded goal to Roberts on a breakaway. Hebert wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Neither were the others.

“We’ve been playing a lot of good hockey, and we’ve been playing the upper echelon of the league,” Valk said. “The games we were losing have been very close. Guys have been getting a lot more confident. You can really tell, guys expect to win. That’s a great feeling.”

The Ducks scored first for the third consecutive game, taking a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Anatoli Semenov scored a power-play goal at 5:53 of the first with Sandy McCarthy off for hooking. Semenov skated free into the center of the right circle and scored his team-leading eighth goal with a hard slap shot. It was Semenov’s third goal in his last four games, and gave him 17 points in his last 12.

Defenseman Alexei Kasatonov, a former teammate of Semenov’s on the Soviet national team, scored on a slap shot from the point at 11:15.

The Flames scored their only goal in the second period on German Titov’s deflection of a point shot at 4:32.

They nearly tied the score at 1:27 of the third, but video goal judge Doug Young ruled there was no goal after reviewing the play. Hebert made the first stop on Nieuwendyk after Nieuwendyk wheeled around from behind the net, but then Roberts dived into the crease with Kasatonov trying to hold him off, Seconds later, the red light came on.

Hebert and Wilson said the whistle had blown, and Wilson said Roberts “pushed it in with his hand” illegally, which was probably the crucial issue on the review.

It didn’t matter in the end, and this time the Ducks could celebrate.

“You can learn from a win as easy as you can from a loss,” Houlder said.

Duck Notes

Coach Ron Wilson was irate with referee Mike Rebus for calling a high-sticking double-minor and not a major on Calgary’s Ronnie Stern after Shaun Van Allen was cut in the first period. “That’s the seventh time this season we’ve been cut by a high-stick and we haven’t picked up a five-minute major yet.” Left wing Tim Sweeney suffered a broken nose in the game on a high-stick with no penalty. However, Wilson didn’t blame it on replacements, saying it was a season-long problem and he has protested to NHL vice president Brian Burke by letter. . . . Right wing Peter Douris did not play because of illness.