Ducks end losing streak with win over Calgary
Alex Killorn scored twice, Troy Terry had a goal and two assists and the Ducks ended a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
“It feels good to win,” said Killorn, who has 17 goals this season. “We haven’t done that in a long time. It’s been tough. It’s nice, especially at the end of the road trip to go home with a good feeling.”
Mason McTavish and Cam Fowler rounded out the scoring for the Ducks, and rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger had three assists for his first multipoint game.
McTavish later left the game with a lower-body injury after a hit.
“It doesn’t look good. We’ll know more later,” said Ducks head coach Greg Cronin. “It was an awkward hit. I didn’t like the way it ended. I thought their guy took advantage.”
Lukas Dostal made 21 stops as the Ducks won for only the second time in their last 14 games (2-11-1).
“It’s not fun losing games and especially not consecutive ones,” said Zellweger. “Get the win here and now we’re looking forward to the next one where we can keep that going.”
Andrei Kuzmenko had two goals and Yegor Sharangovich also scored for the Flames, who have lost six of their last seven games. Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves.
“We weren’t committed to playing with structure,” said Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. “A team, like that, that plays loose and are pretty skilled, they can make you pay. I don’t know why we don’t get prepared like it would be against any other top team in the league.”
After beating the playoff-bound Kings and playing an excellent game, it was a return to the club’s inconsistent ways that have plagued them all season.
“Today wasn’t up to our standards and us leaders gotta show the way for the young guys,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund. “We know we’ve gotta play a lot better. We know we gotta learn from it and at some point, we’ve got to play better against teams that are below us in the standings.”
The Ducks took the lead 1:52 into the third when Fowler jumped into the rush, took a pass from Trevor Zegras, and wired a shot inside the goalpost for his first goal in 22 games. They made it 4-2 at 5:09 when Terry carried the puck down the left wing and found Killorn in the slot for a goal.
After Kuzmenko’s second of the night at 9:34 cut the lead to one, but Killorn put the game away with his second 17th of the season at 13:14.
Down 1-0 after the first period, Calgary tied it 2:30 into the second period, needing just five seconds to connect on a power play.
After winning a faceoff, the puck eventually came back to Nazem Kadri and his shot was deflected in front by Sharangovich.
Calgary took its first lead when Kuzmenko took a pass from Kadri, cut into the slot to avoid Zegras, then pulled the puck around Fowler, before holding onto it patiently to outwait Dostal and fire the puck into the net.
The Ducks tied it three minutes later as Terry made up for failing to score on a breakaway earlier in the period.
Terry is the eighth player in franchise history with three consecutive 20-goal seasons and the first since Rickard Rakell did it from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Up next
The Ducks start a four-game home stand against the Seattle Kraken on Friday night.
