CALGARY, Alberta — The obvious became official north of the border.
Blake Coleman scored a pair of special teams goals, Dustin Wolf made 26 saves and the Calgary Flames beat the Ducks, 4-1, on Thursday night, eliminating the Ducks from the playoff race and extending their postseason drought to seven consecutive seasons.
Nazem Kadri and Kevin Rooney also scored and Yegor Sharangovich had two assists for the Flames (36-27-12, 84 points), who helped their playoff hopes.
Olen Zellweger scored for the Ducks (33-34-8, 74 points) on a night when goalie John Gibson left after the second period because of a lower-body injury.
Flames forward Martin Pospisil collided with Gibson with 24 seconds left in the second. Pospisil was driving to the net and was hauled down by the Ducks’ Radko Gudas, who was penalized for holding.
Gibson finished the period, allowing three goals on 26 shots. Lukas Dostal stopped eight of nine shots in the third.
Kadri got the Flames off to a fast start, scoring his team-leading 31st goal of the season 16 seconds in when he elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 rush and whipped a top-corner shot.
Zellweger evened the count at 8:01, tapping home a cross-crease feed from Ryan Strome during an odd-man rush.
Coleman gave Calgary a 2-1 lead at 10:25 of the second period by converting on a short-handed breakaway he created when he intercepted a cross-ice pass at his own blue line. It was his first goal in 10 games and his first short-handed goal of the season.
Rooney gave the Flames a two-goal edge at 15:19 of the middle frame by snapping an 18-game drought. His high shot from the slot capped an excellent shift by the team’s fourth line.
Coleman’s power-play goal 77 seconds into the third period, a sharp-angled shot off the rush from the bottom of the right circle, rounded out the scoring. It was his 15th goal of the season.
Calgary, which is 6-2-1 in its past nine games, moved within five points of Minnesota for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Calgary has seven games remaining, and Minnesota has six left.
Wolf improved to 25-16-6 in his rookie season as Calgary beat the Ducks for the third time this season, with one more on the docket Wednesday at the Honda Center.
UP NEXT
The Ducks are at Vancouver on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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