Ducks bounce back swiftly

Any ill feelings the Ducks had left over from their loss to San Jose that denied them an historic trip Saturday night didn’t last long.

The Ducks have the NHL’s best record because they haven’t allowed any of their defeats to morph into losing streaks and that didn’t change Monday night as they turned in a workmanlike 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames at the Honda Center.

Samuel Pahlsson and Dustin Penner scored third-period goals to end a 1-1 tie and Andy McDonald also found the net as the Ducks won for the 11th time in 13 games to improve to a league-best 26-4-6. Corey Perry had an empty-net goal.

Although the Ducks didn’t come home with the first 5-0 trip in franchise history after losing to the Sharks, they did extend their lead in the Pacific Division to 10 points in front of their fourth announced sellout crowd of 17,174.

“So far, we haven’t been satisfied with what we’ve done,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “We know in a lot of games we’ve been successful, there’s always stuff that we felt we could improve on.

“We could say that after the last loss it was no big deal. But I think after that loss, everybody was kind of mad. Especially when we were ahead in the third.”

The Ducks took advantage of a Calgary team that suited up journeyman Brad Ference and youngsters Mark Giodano and Richie Regehr in place of injured veterans Rhett Warrener, Roman Hamrlik and Andrei Zyuzin.

The Flames also aren’t nearly as effective away from the Pengrowth Saddledome, where they’re 12-3 compared to 4-9-3 on the road.

“They were short-staffed,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “Those are things we have to take advantage of when that presents itself. We grounded it out and found a way to get it done.”

Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff sat out the Ducks’ 5-3 victory on Nov. 26 but the Vezina Trophy-winning goalie was in the net Monday, and the Ducks figured the best way to beat him was to take as many shots as possible.

Kiprusoff faced 40 shots, the second-most he has faced in 29 starts. Pahlsson put the winner past him with a rising wrist shot at 3 minutes 24 seconds of the third period.

“We had a lot of shots and a lot of scoring chances but it’s always dangerous when it’s a tie game,” Pahlsson said. “They have a lot of good players that can score.”

Pahlsson’s seventh goal capped a strong shift he had with line mates Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer, each of whom assisted on the score.

“Those guys typically don’t get a lot of credit when the glory is handed out because the stats don’t truly indicate [their worth],” Carlyle said. “But the one thing you can always look at with that grouping of players is their minutes played.”

Giguere bounced back from giving up all four goals Saturday by making 27 saves for his league-leading 22nd victory. Giguere also got an assist on Penner’s insurance goal in the third period, giving him his first assist since Feb. 18, 2004.

The only goal Giguere gave up came 1:40 into the game on a one-timer by Daymond Langkow. McDonald erased the deficit with 39 seconds left in the first period when he redirected a pass from Chris Kunitz that Flames defenseman Andrew Ference tipped into the air.

The Ducks got themselves into some penalty problems in the first two periods but, as they have for the majority of the season, worked their way out of trouble by killing all five short-handed situations.

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