Mason McTavish scored the shootout winning goal to give the host Anaheim Ducks an entertaining 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Sunday to run their winning streak to five games.
Cutter Gauthier scored twice for the Ducks, who have won 12 of 14 games and moved within one point of the Vegas Golden Knights for top spot in the Pacific Division. Anaheim also has one game in hand.
Goalie Lukas Dostal made 32 saves through overtime and surrendered one goal in the shootout.
McTavish netted the difference winner in the third round by patiently waiting for an opening before tucking home the puck. Anaheim has a perfect 7-0 record in shootouts this season.
Leo Carlsson also scored in the shootout.
Joel Farabee and Yegor Sharangovich scored for the Flames, who finished a three-game road trip through California with a 1-1-1 record.
Goalie Devin Cooley stopped 34 shots through overtime but could not find enough magic in the shootout.
After being blanked the night before in Los Angeles, the Flames were looking for a quick boost and received it when Farabee opened the scoring midway through the first period by neatly redirecting Ryan Lomberg’s cross-ice pass off the rush.
Gauthier pulled Anaheim even at 11:14 of the second period. He chipped the puck up over the net from behind the goal, and the puck banked off Cooley’s back and into the cage.
Sharangovich’s power-play goal put Calgary ahead for the second time. From the top of the right circle, he wired a bar-down shot to snap an eight-game goal-scoring drought at 16:10 of the second period.
Gauthier again tied the clash with a power-play goal of his own, a short-side one-timer from the right circle for his team-best 28th goal of the season just past the midway point of the third period.
