A four-game winless skid has knocked the Anaheim Ducks off the top spot in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n
At least the Ducks (41-30-5, 87 points) won\u2019t have to wait long for their chance to break out of their swoon, as they\u2019ll host the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
A 6-2 home loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday pushed the Ducks behind the Edmonton Oilers in the chase for the divisional crown. Both teams have 87 points, but the Oilers have more regulation-time victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows the scenario that we\u2019re in,\u201d said Anaheim forward Ryan Poehling, who collected one goal and one assist against the Blues. \u201cLast two games, I thought we played good hockey. (Friday) wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ducks remain in a strong spot to snap their playoff drought at seven seasons, but they have been off their game for more than a week. During their swoon (0-3-1), the Ducks have been guilty of porous defensive play.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can just see the coverage of the first goal,\u201d coach Joel Quenneville said of his team\u2019s loss to the Blues. \u201cIt turns into a breakaway and it\u2019s uncontested. Those types of plays can\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anaheim has won four consecutive meetings with Calgary, all in extra time, so that provides a much-needed confidence boost. However, the Ducks know they can not simply rely on past success to get their game back in order.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a group, we just need to just pull together a little bit more,\u201d Poehling said.<\/p>\n
The Flames are looking to rebound from a pair of lopsided defeats.<\/p>\n
Calgary (31-36-8, 70 points) arrives in Anaheim on the heels of a 6-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. That came after the Flames opened a six-road trip with a 9-2 thumping by the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.<\/p>\n
Unlike the Colorado game, the Flames \u2014 who are close to being officially eliminated from playoff contention \u2014 held a 3-2 lead with four minutes remaining in the second period before surrendering four unanswered goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took too many penalties. Can\u2019t give (those to) a team with a power play like that. I don\u2019t know how many they had,\u201d defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to claw your way out of that. It loses momentum and creates momentum for them, whether they create chances or vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vegas tallied on the power play to tie the clash before hitting the afterburners in the final portion.<\/p>\n
The biggest positive of the game for Calgary was veteran forward Blake Coleman\u2019s pair of goals, which gives him 19 for the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to score and help your team get on the board,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cI\u2019d like to have one of the goals they scored on us back. Ultimately, it\u2019s about how you play on both sides. Disappointed with giving up one, but nice to contribute. Just a tough loss, but we\u2019ll bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, Calgary summoned 21-year-old forward Aydar Suniev from the minors. Suniev, the 80th pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, had 15 goals and 23 points with the AHL\u2019s Calgary Wranglers in his first pro season. He made his NHL debut in last season\u2019s finale after his sophomore season at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A four-game winless skid has knocked the Anaheim Ducks off the top spot in the Pacific Division. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-540583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116347514670461642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}