Preview: Ducks Host Flames on Angels Night at Honda Center

The Ducks will cap the New Year's first homestand tonight against a division rival, and shoot for their fifth win in the last five games, hosting the Calgary Flames at Honda Center.

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The first 5,000 fans in attendance tonight will receive a limited-edition baseball jersey giveaway. Angels alumni and former All-Star pitchers Chuck Finley, Mark Langston and Jered Weaver will participate in a ceremonial puck drop before the game.

Anaheim gets back to work looking to keep the good times rolling, after a convincing 4-1 victory over Tampa Bay on Sunday. But unlike much of those recent wins, no dramatic comeback effort would be required over the weekend, as the Ducks jumped out to an early lead on Troy Terry's team-leading 14th goal of the season and never looked back.

"I thought we really controlled the game in the first," Terry said. "They have good players and in the second period they got a little more chances and it felt like we let our foot off the gas a little bit. Coming into the third, I thought we didn’t sit back and try to defend, we were still attacking their net. It helps
when you have [John Gibson] in your net."

"I think we got off to a great start and we had the most energy," winger Frank Vatrano added. "Obviously, we had a tough last trip, getting in late, but we knew they were tired too so we needed to get off to a good start. I think the second period got away from us, but we had a great third period closing them out. It was a great team effort tonight."

The win capped a great day for the Ducks and Vatrano especially, after the two agreed to a three-year contract extension announced before the game. Originally signed to a three-year contract as a free agent in July 2022, Vatrano leads all Ducks skaters with 70 goals and 20 power-play goals (PPG), and ranks second with 124 points, over the past three seasons.

"He’s a guy you want to have in the room," Gibson said. "He’s a guy that checks all the boxes, and when you can keep a guy like that around for a while, it’s always a positive and a big help to your team."

Anaheim improved to 17-18-4 on the season with the win, and now sits seven points back of the Western Conference's second Wild Card berth.

"I think we know we can play with the best of them," Vatrano said. "I think we've just got to make sure that we're playing the right way every single night. Sometimes, early on in the season, it got away from us. We couldn't really bring ourselves back. But I think now even when we're not playing so well, we can find ways to grind it out and kind of simplify our game to find ways to win. Now we're scoring more goals, and that's huge, but I think we're doing a great job away from the puck and we're limiting other teams' chances."

Added Terry, "I think the framework for our team has been there. I think our D zone has been good all year. A lot of times this year I think structurally we haven’t had many bad games the last month. Our issues have been a lack of scoring. Being able to beat some good teams, different guys picks are going in for them. It’s just a game of confidence. Within our struture and game plan set up for us, I think we’re just executing it and it’s giving us the opportunity to succeed."

With one game left before a season-long six-game road trip, Anaheim now welcomes a Calgary team to town for the front half of a Southern California back-to-back. The Flames are right in the thick of the playoff race, but have struggled away from home ice all season, posting a 13-6-3 mark in Alberta but a 5-8-4 record on the road.

Calgary has dropped each of its last two games, 4-1 to Nashville and 5-3 to Utah.

"It's adversity," veteran center Nazem Kadri told NHL.com's Aaron Vickers after the Utah game. "It's expected in every single hockey game. Obviously, there's different forms of it. We have to do a better job of fighting through that. I think in the second period we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game in the third. We just came out a little flat to start the third period, so we'll learn from that."

The Flames (18-14-7, 43 points) sit fifth in the Pacific Division, two points out of a Wild Card position.