The Calgary Flames headed to the Honda Center in Anaheim on Sunday night to conclude their California road trip with a meeting with the Ducks. The game was pretty back and forth, featuring a pair of strong goaltending performances from Calgary’s Devin Cooley and Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal.

The Flames managed to get a point, losing to the Ducks by a 3-2 score after a shootout.

The Flames opened the scoring 9:41 into the first period off a really nice play by their fourth line. As the Flames began changing in the neutral zone, Ryan Lomberg entered the Anaheim zone and noticed Joel Farabee trucking towards the net. He threw the puck into the slot area, where Farabee made a redirect with his stick blade to lift the puck past Lukas Dostal to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

First period shots were 14-14. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 13-11 Ducks and high-danger scoring chances were 4-3 Flames.

Midway through the second period, 11:14 in, the Ducks tied the game up on a very weird goal. Devin Cooley made a couple saves in-close on Cutter Gauthier. On the last one, the puck launched up into the air… and landed on Cooley’s back and bounced into the net to tie the game at 1-1.

But roughly five minutes later, 16:10 into the second, the Flames got that one back for their netminder on the power play. After John Beecher drew a minor, the Flames went to work, ending with a heck of a wrist shot by Yegor Sharangovich that hit the post and beat Dostal to give the Flames a 2-1 lead.

Kevin Bahl gave everyone a scare late in the second period, when a point shot was redirected off a stick and hit him square in the face. He got some repairs in the intermission and returned for the third period.

Second period shots were 13-12 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 12-8 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 7-5 Flames.

10:41 into the third period, with Mikael Backlund sitting in the sin bin, the Ducks tied things up with a power play goal of their own. Gauthier got his second of the game, blasting a one-timer past Cooley to make it 2-2.

Third period shots were 9-6 Ducks. 5v5 scoring chances were 6-5 Ducks and high-danger scoring chances were 3-2 Ducks.

This game required extra time to determine a winner. There were chances both ways, including a heck of a chance for Nazem Kadri. Morgan Frost was called for interference with just 24.6 seconds remaining in overtime. Cooley made a glove stop at the buzzer on a Gauthier one-timer chance to get this game to the shootout.

In the skills competition, Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish scored for Anaheim, Nazem Kadri scored for the Flames, and Matvei Gridin rang the puck off the post and the Ducks won the shootout, and won the game by a 3-2 score.

The Flames were playing their third game in four nights (and a back-to-back, too) after three weeks off. They played a pretty composed game. In regulation, they sawed off even on special teams and even at even strength, against a pretty strong Ducks team that was not playing on consecutive nights. It’s impressive that this game was close all things considered.

The extra point was ultimately decided by the skills competition, which can often feel like a coin toss.

We’ll give this to the goalie: Devin Cooley was really sharp and gave his team a chance.

Man, the Flames’ penalty kill has been so good for so long this season. It probably hurt, given how strong their special teams have been, for Cutter Gauthier to get the game-tying goal on an Anaheim power play.

The Flames made a trio of changes for this game, as they played their third game in four nights:

Join Cami Kepke and myself right after the game for After Burner!

The Flames (24-28-7) are headed home. They host the Dallas Stars at the Saddledome on Tuesday night to kick off a three game homestand.

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