The Flames brought a 2-1 lead into the third period, but the Ducks levelled the count and forced overtime with a powerplay tally at 7:36 when Mason McTavish got a piece of a Cutter Cauthier point shot, beating Wolf clean on the blocker side.
But the visitors had a little magic left in the tank.
The Flames were awarded the game’s first powerplay less than three minutes into the game after Joel Hanley was clipped by a high stick in the offensive zone. While it didn’t result in a goal, the visitors generated all sorts of momentum, peppering John Gibson with eight shots by the five-minute mark of the period.
However, their best look didn’t count as a shot at all.
Zary showed excellent hands on the zone entry, knifing through the penalty killers before setting up Jonathan Huberdeau, who rang one off the crossbar from the high slot.
Kadri met a similar fate shortly thereafter, grazing iron from a sharp angle after the teams returned to even strength.
Territorially, the back half of the frame belonged to the Ducks and Wolf was called upon to make a pair of 10-bell stops to keep the game knotted. First, Calgary native Brett Leason let one fly from the half wall that Wolf casually flagged down with the glove and cheekily tossed it aside, before flat-out robbing Leo Carlsson from point-blank range after receiving a backdoor feed off the rush.
But the Flames – challenged by Head Coach Ryan Huska to make good on their dominant first periods of late – turned it back and hit paydirt late in the stanza.
Joel Hanley let a shot go from the point and after a couple of crazy hops en route, birthday boy Weegar was the last touch it, the puck tumbling across the goal line to put the road team up 1-0 19:04.
That’s one lucky duck.
Blake Coleman picked up the other helper.
