Jakob Silfverberg helps Ducks stop a skid

Jakob Silfverberg made the right call when he went to his backup plan.

Silfverberg scored the go-ahead goal 5 minutes 37 seconds into the third period to lead the Ducks to a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.

On a two-on-one with Andrew Cogliano, Silfverberg hung onto the puck and whipped a 40-foot wrist shot over Chad Johnson’s shoulder. Silfverberg has scored in three straight games.

“I was thinking pass first, but then their [defenseman] made a pretty good play and slid and I just had to get the shot off,� Silfverberg said. “I just tried to fire it quick and it happened to find a pretty good spot.�

Antoine Vermette and Rickard Rakell also scored to help Anaheim end a three-game skid. Ryan Kesler had two assists.

John Gibson made 31 stops for Anaheim, allowing only Mikael Backlund’s goal.

“I thought we got better as the game went along,� Gibson said. “They jumped on us a little bit in the first period but once we weathered that storm, we got our power play going and settled down from there and locked it down.�

After Dennis Wideman’s delay of game put the Flames down two men for 1:03, Calgary survived the five-on-three portion, but Rakell knocked a puck in from a scramble on the ensuing one-man advantage. It was the second power-play goal of the night for Anaheim.

Anaheim’s penalty kill was a perfect four for four.

“Special teams do have a huge impact on your success and your ability to have success,� Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “If you don’t have penalty killing, your chances of winning go down dramatically. You can survive without a power play, but you can’t survive without penalty killing, and more so on the road.�