Toffoli has 3 assists, Flames pull away for victory against Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Tyler Toffoli tied his NHL career high with three assists for the Calgary Flames in a 5-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Elias Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane and Rasmus Andersson scored for the Flames (32-25-15), who were 1-1-2 in their previous four games after an 8-2 loss at the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. Dan Vladar made 19 saves for Calgary in his first start since Feb. 28.
"We wanted to come out and show that we're better than [Monday] night," said Calgary forward Mikael Backlund, who had two assists. "Last night wasn't good enough, and wasn't acceptable."
Calgary remained four points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference following Winnipeg's 2-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.

Frank Vatrano scored, and John Gibson made 38 saves for the Ducks (23-38-10), who have lost four of five.
"We knew [the Flames] were going to be a little ornery after their game last night against L.A.," Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said.
Nick Ritchie scored 37 seconds into the game to give Calgary a 1-0 lead. Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin took a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle that was saved by Gibson, but the rebound fell at the feet of Ritchie, who swiped the puck into the net.
"It was good to see Big Nick score, first shift," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. "Nice to score the first goal when you're on the road."
Troy Stecher made it 2-0 at 16:50 with his first goal of the season. Jonathan Huberdeau made a diagonal pass back to Stecher at the right point, who skated inside the circle and scored with a wrist shot for his first goal in 90 games.
Ritchie and Stecher were acquired from the Arizona Coyotes on March 3 for Ritchie's brother, Brett Ritchie, also a forward, and defenseman Connor Mackey.
"The start was what propelled us to carry on throughout the rest of the night," Stecher said. "You don't get that first goal, things can change, so it was a huge momentum shift in the game."

Andersson extended it to 3-0 at 2:36 of the second period, scoring a power-play goal on a one-timer off a feed from Toffoli.
Vatrano cut it to 3-1 at 7:36 of the second period on the power play with a wrist shot from the right circle.
"When they get out to a lead like that early on, you can kind of be on your heels a little bit," Vatrano said. "We knew that we needed to do a better job in the second period in our all-around game, and I thought we did that."
Lindholm made it 4-1 after scoring 46 seconds into the third period on the power play. Toffoli fed the puck ahead to Lindholm, and he banked a one-timer from the right circle off the far post and into the net.
"Other than a few spurts in the second period, maybe for about six minutes in the second, we couldn't sustain much," Eakins said. "Every time we turned, they were in our face."
Mangiapane got loose on a breakaway and scored at 15:26 for the 5-1 final, ending a 14-game goal drought.

NOTES: Ducks forward Troy Terry left the game after taking a hit from Ritchie at 7:25 of the third period. Eakins did not have an update. …Toffoli's other three-assist NHL game came in a 5-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 26, 2014, when he played for the Los Angeles Kings. ... Hanifin was credited with an assist on Ritchie's goal to stretch his point streak to six games (two goals, four assists). ... Anaheim forward Nikita Nesterenko made his NHL debut and tied for the team lead with four shots on goal in 13:06. He was acquired from the Minnesota Wild on March 3, along with defenseman
Andrej Sustr
and a fourth-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft, for defenseman John Klingberg.