Ducks vs. Flames: Ryan Poehling's Short-Handed Winner Keeps Calgary Searching for Its First Point

Ryan Poehling did everything right on the biggest shift of the night, and it cost him. With Anaheim killing a penalty early in the third period of a tied game, he intercepted the puck, drove hard to the net and slid a shot under Dustin Wolf's pad. Then his momentum carried him straight into the post and the Calgary goalie, and he stayed down until teammates helped him off the ice.

That short-handed goal at 5:35 of the third stood up as the winner, Nikita Nesterenko added a late insurance marker, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Saturday night at Scotiabank Saddledome. Anaheim won on the second night of a back-to-back. Calgary, meanwhile, is still waiting on its first point of the season.

Three Goals and a Coin Flip of a First Period

Anaheim cashed in on its first power play in a hurry. Zayne Parekh went off for cross-checking at 9:52 of the first, and 10 seconds later Jackson LaCombe made it 1-0. Judd Caulfield whiffed on a Leo Carlsson pass, the puck dropped right onto LaCombe's stick, and he lifted it over Wolf's blocker for his first goal of the season. "(I was) just trying to follow the play there and the puck kind of fell through there and then just out front, so definitely lucky," LaCombe said.

Calgary pushed back at 15:03. Morgan Frost slipped in behind LaCombe, took a pass from Matt Coronato and tucked a shot past Ville Husso's right pad, just inside the far post, for his second goal of the season.

The tie lasted 4:12. With 45 seconds left in the period, Poehling got a piece of a Noah Warren point shot, and the puck caromed in off Frank Vatrano, who was busy wrestling Jake Middleton for real estate in front. Ugly, sure, but Anaheim took a 2-1 lead to the room.

Calgary Finally Breaks Through

The Flames thought they had the equalizer at 11:27 of the second period when defenseman Yan Kuznetsov scored. Anaheim challenged, and video review found Joel Farabee offside on the entry. Goal gone.

The real one arrived at 17:54. Coronato set up behind the net and fed Aydar Suniev, who squeezed a sharp-angle shot short side past Husso for his first NHL goal. Suniev sounded like a kid who had just been handed the keys to the car. "It's so great. You dream about it, scoring your first goal, and here it is. Thanks, Matty, for that pass," he said.

The Turning Point: A Kill That Turned Into a Dagger

Tim Washe went to the box for tripping at 4:34 of the third, handing Calgary a power play in a tie game. Sixty-one seconds later, the Flames were trailing. Poehling picked off the puck, attacked the crease and beat Wolf under the pad, with Pavel Mintyukov drawing the assist on the short-handed goal.

The celebration was muted for a reason. Poehling crashed into the post and Wolf on the play and did not return. "It was a huge goal for us," LaCombe said. "Obviously, it gave us some momentum, too, but it's tough to see him go into the post like that. Hopefully he's okay, so we'll see what happens."

Anaheim was already short a forward. Cutter Gauthier played just five shifts in the first period before leaving with an upper-body injury, according to NHL.com. Coach Joel Quenneville did not have answers on either player yet. "We've got our fingers crossed, but I'm not sure right now," he said.

Calgary still had the rest of that power play and got another one when Beckett Sennecke went off for cross-checking at 7:21. Nothing came of either. Then Nesterenko ended the suspense at 17:03, poking home a loose puck out of a goal-mouth scramble for his second goal of the season, with Alex Killorn and Mikael Granlund assisting. "It wasn't pretty, but we'll take the two points because we worked hard," Quenneville said.

Who Delivered

Ryan Poehling: A goal and an assist in 11:49 of ice time, plus a 7-6 night in the faceoff circle. He had a hand in both of Anaheim's go-ahead goals after Calgary pulled even, and his first goal of the season was the game-winner.

Ville Husso: 27 saves on 29 shots in his first start of the season. "It's always nice to start with the win," Husso said. "We had to earn it today, so a lot of credit for our guys playing back-to-back and not giving too many good looks for them."

Jackson LaCombe and Mikael Granlund: LaCombe's power-play goal and Granlund's two assists kept both of their season-opening point streaks alive at five games, per NHL.com. Granlund also took 23 draws and won 11 of them.

Matt Coronato: Two assists for Calgary, setting up both Flames goals. The problem is that his team keeps needing more than two.

Stats That Matter

• 2-0: Special-teams goals. Anaheim went 1 for 2 on the power play and added the short-handed winner, while Calgary went 0 for 3.
• 29-28: Calgary actually outshot Anaheim. The Ducks simply made more of their looks.
• 23: Shots blocked by Anaheim, compared with 15 for Calgary.
• 8: Goals Calgary has scored through five games, against 27 allowed, based on its game results so far.

What It Means

Anaheim moves to 4-1-0 with eight points and has won two straight, coming off a 5-1 win in Winnipeg the night before. The Ducks are 3-0-0 on the road, and the AP noted that they have won their first three road games to start a season for the first time. NHL.com added that it is the fifth 4-1-0 start in franchise history. The catch is health: the Ducks head home with two forwards awaiting evaluation.

Calgary is 0-5-0 and 0-3-0 at home, the only team in the NHL without a point, per NHL.com. The Flames are 0-5-0 for the first time in franchise history. Coach Ryan Huska is selling process over panic. "I think every game we've played this year, we've slowly been getting better and that's the most important thing," he said. Coronato was blunter. "We've had good stretches, but it's still about playing the full 60. We've got to be better in the third," he said.

The good news for Calgary is that it gets a rematch right away. The second half of the home-and-home is Tuesday night in Anaheim.

Closing Take

Calgary is living its own version of Groundhog Day: different opponent, same final horn. Anaheim, on the other hand, keeps finding ways to win games it does not dominate, and that is usually what a confident team looks like in October. The Ducks will spend Sunday hoping that the guy who won them this one is all right.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.