The Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames meet again on Friday, Nov. 6, in the third game between them this season, and the timing gives the matchup a sharper edge than a routine early-November stop. They split their two October meetings, Anaheim is coming off a win over the Edmonton Oilers, and the Ducks arrive with a road record of 6-3-0 and a scoring run that has pushed them into must-watch territory.
Jackson LaCombe is a big reason the Ducks keep turning games into track meets. He has an assist in eight straight games, 17 assists in 16 contests, and 12 helpers during that streak alone. He has also logged a point in 14 of 16 games, including eight of nine on the road, while ranking fourth in the NHL in average ice time at 26:57. That kind of workload matters when Anaheim has scored five-plus goals in six consecutive games and when Cutter Gauthier has piled up nine goals in his last four games, including back-to-back hat tricks. Gauthier leads Anaheim with 11 goals, and nine of them have come on the power play, a natural fit for a unit clicking at 36.2%.
Calgary has kept pace in the standings even if the process has not always matched the results. The Flames are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, but their underlying numbers still sit near the bottom of the league: 29th in shot share at 46.81% over that stretch, 28th in expected goals share at 44.16%, and 29th in expected goals share on the season. That makes Dustin Wolf an important swing piece despite a 2-0-1 run in his last three starts, because he still carries a minus-5.5 goals-saved above expected mark. Matt Coronato has helped keep Calgary dangerous at home with 11 assists over an active six-game home streak, and he had four points in his last game at the Saddledome.
The special-teams edge may decide whether Calgary can lean on results or gets dragged into Anaheim’s pace. The Flames allow 3.44 goals per game, but they also take the seventh-most penalties in the league, which opens the door for a Ducks power play that has become the cleaner path to offense than even-strength play. Anaheim gives up 3.81 goals per game, so it is not built to control games through structure; it wins by scoring in bunches and forcing opponents to trade chances. If Calgary’s possession numbers stay this poor, the Flames are asking their recent record to outrun the math again on Friday.
