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Ducks-Flames Preview

Feb 12, 2010 - 6:56 PM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Anaheim (29-24-7) at Calgary (29-23-9), 10:00 p.m. EDT

With plenty of home games awaiting them after the Olympic break, the Anaheim Ducks are looking to finish strong on the road before that two-week hiatus begins.

The surging Ducks go for their fifth straight win over the team they're currently chasing for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference as they meet the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

Anaheim (29-24-7) makes its first visit to Calgary this season following its franchise-record 11th straight home win, 3-2 over Edmonton on Wednesday. The Ducks also visit Edmonton on Sunday before the Olympic break, after which they play eight of their first nine games at the Honda Center.

"We've got two tough now back-to-back in Western Canada," Todd Marchant told the Ducks' official Web site Wednesday after scoring the game-winner. "We have to play like we did against L.A. (in Monday's 4-2 victory), more so than the way we did tonight."

Anaheim is within two points of the eighth-place Flames thanks greatly to Jonas Hiller, who has allowed no more than two goals in six of his past seven starts and made a combined 72 saves in the last two wins. Expected to make his 100th career start Saturday and first in Calgary, Hiller has started all but one game during the Ducks' 13-5-0 run since Jan. 3 while posting a 2.34 goals-against average.

Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff has not been as fortunate during the last five-plus weeks, going 4-9-4 since Jan. 5 despite a 2.36 GAA.

A Flames offense averaging 1.8 goals in its last 19 games hasn't helped. Captain Jarome Iginla, who has a team-high 25 goals and 55 points, snapped a five-game goal-scoring drought in Thursday's 3-1 loss to Dallas, but that score came on an own-goal from Stars forward Brenden Morrow.

Calgary (29-23-9) has four goals during its three-game slide.

"We've got to find ways to score goals," said Iginla, who has four goals in his last 20 games. "We've got to be good defensively, good in our own zone, and we have been for a long time, but we're capable of scoring more goals in here. We can't expect to win consistently 1-0 or 2-1 all the time."

Calgary has dropped 15 of 19 since a season-high five-game winning streak from Dec. 28-Jan. 5. The Flames are 2-7-1 in their last 10 at home.

They've lost four in a row and seven of eight to Anaheim, including two meetings this season. The last six matchups have been decided by one goal.

The Ducks now try to win two straight in Calgary for the first time since the 1995-96 season. In the teams' last meeting at Pengrowth Saddledome, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan each scored in Anaheim's 2-1 victory on Feb. 7 of last season. The Ducks were 6-18-0 with a tie in their previous 25 visits to Calgary.

Perry, tied with Ryan Getzlaf with a team-high 57 points, has two goals and five assists in a seven-game point streak against Calgary.

Ryan scored his team-leading 26th and 27th goals Wednesday and will look to score in his third straight game versus the Flames this season.

Getzlaf could miss his second consecutive game with a sprained left ankle.