Twenty-four and counting. The Anaheim Ducks have one of the more remarkable streaks going in NHL history and it was extended Sunday night as second-period goals by Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano lifted them to 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames, whose run of futility at Honda Center is now at 24 consecutive regular-season losses.
Kesler scored twice while Clayton Stoner got his first goal of the season for the Ducks (6-5-2), who won consecutive games for the first time since beating Philadelphia and Vancouver last month.
“For us, we want to ride the wave. And for them, they’d like it to crash, right?” said Carlyle, who returned this season for his second tenure as Ducks coach. He also led Anaheim from 2006-12.
Jonathan Bernier got his first win, making 25 saves in his first start since October 25.
Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry each had three assists, with the duo teaming to set up Kesler on both of his power-play tallies. Coming back after a two-game absence due to injury, Getzlaf has 531 career assists to tie Teemu Selanne for the Ducks’ all-time mark in that category.
It is now Glen Gulutzan’s turn to ingest the Flames’ regular dose of failure now that Bob Hartley was shipped out.
Darryl Sutter, the Los Angeles Kings’ coach for six seasons running, was the man behind the bench for Calgary’s last win in Anaheim.
Sutter watched on January 19, 2004, as Roman Turek backstopped the Flames to a 4-1 win. And he was on hand for their 5-2 win in Game 3 of the 2006 Western Conference quarter-finals.
Since then, the Mighty Ducks have simply become the Ducks. And following Sutter into the house of horrors have been Jim Playfair, Mike Keenan, Brent Sutter, Hartley and now Gulutzan. Meanwhile, the Ducks still had Mike Babcock as their head man in 2004 – and just two coaches since.
Stoner got the Ducks on the scoreboard first as he pinched from the blue line to bang a deflected pass from Perry into an open net behind Calgary goalie Chad Johnson.
Alex Chiasson got credit for forging a 1-1 first-period tie when Johnny Gaudreau’s shot skipped in off him at the net.
The Ducks’ long-held issues with the second period have floated into this season but this one belonged to them.
Taking advantage of the NHL’s 29th-ranked penalty killing team, Kesler slammed in a backhand feed from Perry down
low.
Cogliano added on to the lead with a strong individual effort. The speedy winger broke in on Johnson and took one shot that was stopped, but followed it up by beating the goalie from a bad angle as a trailing Gaudreau tripped him with his stick.