Recap: Rough Third Period Leads to 6-4 Loss to Flames

The Ducks were in a good spot early in the third period, holding a two-goal lead and keeping the home crowd in relative silence. Then, they simply gave the game away. The Ducks allowed five unanswered goals in the final frame and saw a 3-1 lead vanish in a 6-4 loss to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Turnovers and soft coverage in the defensive zone crushed the Ducks, who played a fairly mistake-free game for more than 45 minutes today. But for whatever reason, the wheels fell off. It was a disappointing result, given the Ducks were coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season yesterday in Vancouver, and had a six-game point streak on the road.
"We played a decent game," said Nicolas Deslauriers, who scored his third goal of the season in the third period. "They capitalized on what we gave them. Every little misplay we did, they capitalized. It's on us. No excuse."
The Ducks jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 5:53 mark of the second period courtesy of Adam Henrique, who tucked a backhander past Flames goaltender Cam Talbot for his team-leading 21st goal of the season. It marked Henrique's third goal in his past two games, and his sixth point (4g/2a) in his past five.

Though the Flames answered back less than a minute later when Andrew Mangiapane got ahold of a rebound in the slot for one of his three goals in the game, the Ducks got back to work.
They regained the lead midway through the middle frame when Jakob Silfverberg pounced on a turnover below the dots and deked Talbot for his 18th goal of the season.

Seconds after coming up empty on the power play, the Ducks took what - at the time - seemed like a hearty 3-1 lead at the 3:05 mark of the third when Deslauriers fired a shot from the half-wall that caromed off Flames defenseman Michael Stone's skate and past Talbot.

Then, the Flames flipped everything upside down.
Anaheim's two-goal lead was cut in half when Mangiapane walked in and roofed a backhander just 1:41 after Deslauriers' goal.
Then, the Flames evened the score 19 seconds later when Sam Bennett fired a wrist shot past Ducks netminder Ryan Miller from the right dot.
Matthew Tkachuk gave the Flames their first lead of the game with 7:01 remaining in regulation when he buried his own rebound for his 20th goal of the season.
Sean Monahan put the game out of reach just 65 seconds later when he picked the top corner after intercepting a Ducks turnover in the slot for his 18th of the season.
Mangiapane recorded his first career hat trick with an empty-net goal to make it 6-3.
"We know, in this group, we can battle to the end in every game," said Deslauriers. "We need to fix the little mistakes because we get dinged on them every time. Just like [today]. We played a good game, but in the third they capitalized on every chance."
Devin Shore scored with 3.4 seconds left to make it 6-4.

The Ducks will return to Orange County to open a six-game homestand beginning Wednesday against the Florida Panthers.