Ducks defeat Flames, climb to third in Pacific Division

CALGARY --John Gibson made 29 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, and the Anaheim Ducks moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a 4-0 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday.
Andrew Cogliano, Ondrej Kase, Hampus Lindholm and Francois Beauchemin scored for the Ducks (38-24-12), who have won four straight and are 11-4-1 in the past 16 games.

"I think you just try to focus on what you can do every night, go out there and play your best hockey," Lindholm said. "We have this in our own hands here. We just have to go out there and be determined and play our best kind of hockey this time of year."
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Flames highlights]
The Ducks, whose victory eliminated the Edmonton Oilers from Stanley Cup Playoff contention, are one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and trail the second-place San Jose Sharks by three points. Anaheim has played one more game than San Jose.
"When you're trying to make the playoffs and you get the opportunity to put teams further behind you, you have to," Cogliano said. "You can't let teams creep back in. You have to try to distance yourselves as much as possible and we have to try to keep moving up. This is a big win for us. We're obviously happy."

The Flames (35-30-10) have lost four games in a row and five of six. They have scored two goals or fewer in nine of their past 12 games (3-8-1).
"I would never question the fight in our team," Calgary forward Matt Stajan said. "People outside of this room can say whatever they want, but I know every guy in this room … if they're not out there playing for each other you don't belong in this room, and I don't feel that way at all."
The Flames are seven points behind the Kings for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference with seven games remaining.
"It'll be tough right now to make up some ground and get points and try to take a spot," said goalie David Rittich, who made four saves on five shots after relieving Mike Smith to start the third period. "I'm not too sure what happened. A couple bad bounces. We have to be smarter than we've been."

Cogliano scored shorthanded to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 12:51 of the first period. The goal came 45 seconds after Dougie Hamilton hit the crossbar on the power play. It was Cogliano's 16th shorthanded goal, tying Paul Kariya for the most in Ducks history.
"I've managed some weird records or stats in my career," Cogliano said. "Paul Kariya is one of the best of all time, really. For sure, one of the best Ducks of all time. I've had a good amount of shorthanded goals, so it's pretty special."
Kase made it 2-0 at 8:58 of the second period when he spun around and slipped a backhand between Smith's legs, and Lindholm extended the lead to 3-0 at 18:55, beating Smith with a one-timer on Anaheim's 11th shot of the game.
Beauchemin made it 4-0 with a slap shot past Rittich at 17:31 of the third period.

Goal of the game

Cogliano's goal at 12:51 of the first period.

Save of the game

Gibson's save on Johnny Gaudreau at 7:18 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Kase's goal at 8:58 of the second period.

They said it

"For the most part we didn't give them a whole lot and did a good job on limiting guys like [Johnny] Gaudreau and [Sean] Monahan who are pretty good players in terms of creating offense. We didn't get too many shots (16), but it's the first game of a road trip and a tough place to play. At the end of the day, it's all about the score." -- Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano
"I thought we came out really strong. Obviously when you look at the score, it doesn't look that way, and when you're down 3-0 in the third and you're chasing against a team sitting back, it's hard to generate in this league. That's a solid team over there." -- Flames forward Matt Stajan

Need to know

Gibson has three shutouts in his past seven starts and 16 in his NHL career. He is 12-3-1 with a 1.73 goals-against average and .944 save percentage in his past 16 starts. … Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf has 18 points (three goals, 15 assists) in the past 10 games. … Ducks forward Jason Chimera played his 1,100th NHL game. He is the 187th player to play at least that many. … Stajan played his 1,000th NHL game. He is the 21st active player with at least that many and 319th of all time. … Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk missed his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury. … Anaheim's Randy Carlyle became the 32nd coach in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points (448-307-105).

What's next

Ducks: At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Flames: At the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, SNW, NHL.TV)