Kesler, Ducks cruise to victory against Flames

ANAHEIM-- Ryan Kesler had two goals and an assist to help the Anaheim Ducks to their fifth straight victory, a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Honda Center on Sunday.
Pat Maroon, Ryan Getzlaf and Kevin Bieksa scored for the Ducks (31-19-8), Hampus Lindholm had two assists, and goalie John Gibson made 22 saves.
Kesler put the Ducks up 2-0 when he beat Flames goalie Jonas Hiller at 6:54 of the second period after taking a pass from behind the net from Andrew Cogliano.

Kesler scored an unassisted goal at 4:56 of the third period to give Anaheim a 4-1 lead. He stole the puck from forward Micheal Ferland in the Calgary zone and shot high over Hiller for his 11th goal.

It was Kesler's third multigoal game in his past 19 and his first three-point performance of the season. He has two goals and five assists during a five-game point streak.
Coach Bruce Boudreau said Kesler's play has been at the same high level all season.
"He's been a beast for a long time," Boudreau said. "Just because he doesn't score, some people don't think he's playing as good as he has in the past. But I think he's been phenomenal. He's checking the other team's top line all of the time, whether home or on the road, and he's done a great job with it."
Kesler said his line, with Cogliano and Jakob Silfverberg, is finally getting results on the offensive end to go with its defensive dirty work against opponents' top lines.
"It's obviously a tough job for my line shutting down those guys," Kesler said. "We got rewarded tonight.

The Flames (26-29-3), who got goals from Mark Giordano and Mikael Backlund, have lost 22 straight regular-season games in Anaheim. Their last win was Jan 19, 2004.
A little less than two minutes after Kesler's first goal, Giordano scored on the power play to cut the Ducks lead to 2-1.
Getzlaf scored 16 seconds into the third period to put Anaheim up 3-1. David Perron stole the puck from Calgary defenseman Dougie Hamilton in the corner and sent a feed to Getzlaf, who scored his eighth goal with a one-timer from the low slot.
"The big goal was the third goal on the first shift of the third period," Boudreau said. "I thought it was going to be a nip-and-tuck game, and then we scored that and it seemed to deflate them a little bit."
Flames coach Bob Hartley agreed with Boudreau.

"That first shift gave them a lot of momentum," Hartley said. "We felt we ended the second period strong and the boys were very positive in the locker room between the second and third periods. They got back to their game and they have been playing so well that we knew it was going to be tough."
Giordano was disappointed with Calgary's effort in the third period. The Flames captain said he expected them to make a bigger push after the way they had played in the first and second.
"We should have gave it to them in the third," Giordano said. "Tonight, I thought we were there, we were right there with them. But in the third period, we gave them goals that we don't usually give up, and that was the end of it."
Maroon opened the scoring at 15:36 of the first period to extend the Ducks' streak to five straight games with a power-play goal. With Giordano off for a delay of game penalty, Maroon took a pass from Lindholm at the edge of the right circle and slipped a wrist shot past Hiller to the short side from close range.
Bieksa one-timed Lindholm's pass by Hiller from the top of the left faceoff circle for a power-play goal with 5:07 left to give the Ducks a 5-1 lead. After he had two goals in the first 56 games, Bieksa scored one in each of the past two.

Backlund caught Gibson out of his net to make it 5-2 with 45 seconds remaining.
Hiller, who played seven seasons with the Ducks, made 28 saves.
Cogliano played his 680th consecutive game, passing the Vancouver Canucks' Henrik Sedin for the sixth-longest streak in NHL history.
Anaheim continues a five-game homestand against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday. Calgary will play at the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.