CALGARY — The Anaheim Ducks (9-7-1) were down 3-1 after one period Friday night, and they won anyway. Cutter Gauthier scored the game-winner with 1:34 left in the third period, his 12th goal of the season and his 10th in the last five games, and the Ducks beat the Calgary Flames (7-9-1) 5-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome for their fourth straight win.
Calgary took the game over early. William Stromgren opened the scoring at 2:23 of the first, from Zayne Parekh and Yan Kuznetsov. Jeff Malott tied it 27 seconds later, unassisted, at 2:50. Then the Flames scored twice more before the period ended — Joel Hanley at 16:29, from Morgan Frost and Simon Nemec, and Joel Farabee on the power play at 19:02, from Parekh and Frost. Anaheim went to the room down 3-1, and that was the turning point of the night: Calgary never scored again.
The comeback came one goal at a time. Tristan Luneau cut it to 3-2 at 12:02 of the second, from Jackson LaCombe and Leo Carlsson. Carlsson tied it himself 55 seconds into the third, on the power play, from Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund. It stayed 3-3 until Gauthier finished it at 18:26, from Granlund and Sennecke — a one-timer past Dustin Wolf at the end of a rush. Nikita Nesterenko added the empty-net goal, unassisted, at 19:46.
Gauthier is the story inside the story. Ten goals in five games is a first in Ducks history — two against Buffalo on Oct. 29, back-to-back hat tricks against Ottawa on Nov. 1 and at Vancouver on Nov. 3, one at Edmonton on Thursday, and the winner tonight. He is from Sweden, and the run is his name on the franchise record, not anyone else’s.
The multi-point nights carried Anaheim: Granlund and Sennecke had two assists each, and Carlsson had a goal and an assist. For Calgary, Frost and Parekh each had two assists. In net, Ville Husso came on in relief for Anaheim and stopped all 10 shots he faced, while Wolf stopped 24 of 28 for the Flames, with the fifth goal going into an empty net.
The team numbers explain how the last 40 minutes flipped. Anaheim outshot Calgary 29-21 and outhit the Flames 21-16. Calgary won the faceoff battle, 57 percent to 43 percent, and blocked more shots, 22-12. Both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play, and both took six penalty minutes — so the difference wasn’t special teams. It was that after the first period, the Ducks scored four straight and the Flames scored none.
Anaheim heads home to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. MST at Honda Center, on ESPN+. Calgary stays home and hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at 6 p.m. MST.
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