Johnny Gaudreau scores in Flames win

CALGARY -- Johnny Gaudreau's return helped spark the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
Gaudreau had a goal and an assist after missing 10 games because of a fractured finger to help Calgary to an 8-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Scotiabank Saddledome.

"Just the energy he brings … you can see it right from the first shift," Flames forward Sam Bennett said. "He flies out there. When he's going, I think the rest of our team's going. It's nice to have him back."
WATCH: All Ducks vs. Flames highlights
Bennett, Alex Chiasson and Matt Stajan each had a goal and two assists, and Troy Brouwer, Dougie Hamilton and Sean Monahan also scored for Calgary (13-13-2), which has won three straight games.
"It's special," Gaudreau said. "It's exciting to come back in here and play with the guys. It's a long 10 games when you're watching them play. I think we did a great job. They started the homestand with two huge wins and then we got another one tonight."

Ryan Kesler had two goals, Logan Shaw scored and Jonathan Bernier made 17 saves for the Ducks (12-9-5).
"We can't get down on ourselves," Anaheim forward Antoine Vermette said. "We've got to look forward and turn the page."
Gaudreau scored in the first period, and the Flames scored three goals in a 1:27 span as part of a five-goal second period to take a 6-1 lead.

Brouwer scored on the power play at 11:28 to put the Flames up 2-1, and Chiasson scored at 12:20. Stajan deflected Dennis Wideman's point shot by Bernier at 12:55 make it 4-1.

Bennett scored Calgary's second power-play goal of the period to take a 5-1 lead at 16:37, and Hamilton one-timed Stajan's pass by Bernier's blocker to make it 6-1 at 17:32.

It was the first time the Flames scored five goals in a period since a 6-0 win against the St. Louis Blues on March 1, 2011.
"Everyone was finding the net," Gaudreau said. "Everyone was playing well. Everyone was in the offensive zone. This is good for us. This is fun. It's a fun game to play and be a part of."

Monahan scored 5:34 into the third period to take a 7-1 lead, and Giordano scored at 15:39. The Flames hadn't scored eight goals in a game since an 8-1 win at the Edmonton Oilers on March 22, 2014.
Kesler scored at 16:30 and Shaw scored 20 seconds later on Chad Johnson to make it 8-3.

Gaudreau scored to give the Flames a 1-0 lead 2:09 into the game on his first shift and shot since sustaining his injury against the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 15.

Kesler tied the game 1-1 at 2:50 of the second period.

Goal of the game

Gaudreau took a drop pass from Bennett just inside Anaheim's blue line and shot over Bernier's pad and below his glove to open the scoring.

Save of the game

Bernier stopped Gaudreau's initial wrist shot and rebound attempt on the backhand at 7:37 of the second period after Gaudreau stripped Jakob Silfverberg at Anaheim's blue line and entered on a 2-on-1.

Unsung moment of the game

Giordano dove back to knock the puck off the stick of Ducks forward Corey Perry with Perry breaking in on a 2-on-1 with 1:10 remaining in the first period.

Highlight of the game

Giordano scored on a shorthanded 2-on-0 to give the Flames an 8-1 lead. He and Brouwer passed back and forth before Giordano finished the play by shooting by a sprawling Bernier.

#

They said it

"What we tried to do is try to flush what happened. We tried to play a period that we can get ourselves in a preparation mode for our next one. We had to leave Bernier in the net because (John) Gibson [was sick] all day. It kind of left him hanging high and dry. We wouldn't normally have ever done that to him, but in these situations you can't put people who are sick into the net. You've got to think big picture and the big picture is this game we couldn't change. It was 6-1 and we made a decision that we were going flush what happened and try and prepare ourselves for the next one and that'll be Carolina on [Wednesday] and that'll be where we'll be judged on how our response is." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
"Eight different goal scorers are good for team morale, it's good for confidence for the whole group. Bringing Johnny back into the mix and putting him with [Bennett] and [Chiasson] makes it harder for teams to match up against us. I thought everyone played a solid game." --Flames coach Glen Gulutzan

Need to know

Flames forward Micheal Ferland sustained an upper-body injury in the first period. … Gaudreau has four goals in his past four games dating back to Nov. 10. Monahan has five points in four games after being held pointless in eight of his previous nine games. … Ducks forward Rickard Rakell missed the game because of an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.

What's next

Ducks: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, FS-CR,
NHL.TV
)
Flames: At the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, SNF,
NHL.TV
)