CALGARY — Big nights from Alex Killorn, Troy Terry and Olen Zellweger helped Anaheim close a tough road trip on a high note Tuesday.
Killorn scored twice, Terry notched his 20th goal and had two assists, and Zellweger had three assists in his first career multi-point game to lead the Ducks to a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.
"It feels good to win,” said Killorn, who has 17 goals on the 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.”
Anaheim had dropped the first four of its five-game trip and entered the game winners of just one of their previous 13 games.
"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."
Mason McTavish and Cam Fowler rounded out the scoring for Anaheim (25-47-4), which is only ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks in the overall standings.
Lukas Dostal made 21 stops for the victory and improved to 12-21-2.
Andrei Kuzmenko, with a pair of goals, and Yegor Sharangovich scored for Calgary (34-35-5). The Flames have lost six of their last seven games.
Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves in falling to 23-20-2.
“We weren't committed to playing with structure,” said Flames defenceman 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 defeating the playoff-bound Los Angeles 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.”
Down 2-1 in the second, Terry tied it at 13:36 of the period when Zellweger's shot hit Leo Carlsson in the leg and caromed right to him at the side of the net.
Terry is the eighth player in club history with three consecutive 20-goal seasons and the first since Rickard Rakell did it from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Anaheim took the lead for good 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 fifth goal of the season and first in 22 games.
The visitors doubled their lead at 5:09 when Killorn took Terry's pass and zipped a shot past Markstrom.
After Kuzmenko's second of the night at 9:34 cut the lead to one again, Killorn put the game away at 13:14 of the frame.
It took Anaheim over 11 minutes to record its first shot. But when it came, the ice began to tilt the other direction with the visitors recording 13 of the period's final 14 shots, one of them being McTavish's goal at 14:03.
After going 14 games without a goal, the 21-year-old in his sophomore NHL season has goals in consecutive games and is up to 19 on the season.
However, McTavish later left the game with a lower-body injury after getting crunched when he was hit by both Weegar and defenceman Brayden Pachal.
"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. He was off balance and falling and (Pachal) directly hit him.”
NEARING THIRTY
Sharangovich joins Blake Coleman as the Flames' co-leaders in goals. With eight games to go, both are one away from hitting 30 for the first time in their careers.
FLAMES PROSPERITY
Kuzmenko's two goals gives him nine in 21 games with Calgary. That surpasses the eight goals he had with the Canucks in 43 games at the time he was acquired by Calgary at the trade deadline in the deal that sent Elias Lindholm to Vancouver.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Open a four-game homestand against the Seattle Kraken on Friday.
Flames: Fly to Winnipeg to take on the Jets on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2024.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press