meras captured an exchange between Ristolainen and Toronto’s Nazem Kadri, after the two

CALGARY Alex Galchenyuk Jersey Womens , Alberta (AP) With the playoffs approaching, John Gibson and the Anaheim Ducks are heating up.John Gibson stopped 29 shots to lead the Anaheim Ducks over the Calgary Flames 4-0 on Wednesday night.Gibson earned his fourth shutout of the season and 16th of his career. He is 12-3-1 in his last 16 starts.”He’s found another level right now in terms of his preparation, in terms of how he’s managing himself in the net,” said Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano, whose short-handed goal 12:51 into the first period proved to be the winner. ”He looks pretty confident.”Francois Beauchemin had a goal and an assist for Anaheim, and Ondrej Kase and Hamphus Lindholm also scored for the Ducks, who’ve won four straight and are tied with Colorado for sixth in the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings.Mike Smith started in goal for Calgary but was replaced after allowing three goals on 11 shots. Rookie David Rittich stopped four of the five shots he faced.The Flames have dropped four straight and are seven points out of the final wild card.Gibson made his best stops in the third period. A couple minutes apart, he stuck out a pad to deny Dougie Hamilton’s one-timer, then turned aside Johnny Gaudreau on a breakaway as the Flames fell to 15-18-4 at the Scotiabank Saddledome and were booed off the ice after.”It’s been a tough week,” said center Matt Stajan, who played in his 1,000th career game. ”We’ve come out strong in every game and we just can’t get that lead.”One of Calgary’s issues has been the power play Carter Rowney Jersey Womens , which went 0 for 2 to fall to 1 for 35 in the last 12 games. And it was while the Flames were on the man advantage that Anaheim took the lead.Less than a minute after Hamilton put a shot off the crossbar, Hamilton and Mark Giordano got tangled up in their own corner, allowing the puck to squirt free. Cogliano corralled it and made a nice move on Smith for a short-handed goal.Anaheim made it 2-0 at 8:58 of the second when Kase broke in off the wing on a 1-on-1, spun around and put a backhand shot through Smith’s pads. The Ducks went ahead 3-0 with 1:05 left in the period on Lindholm’s slap shot from the blue line.Calgary trailed 3-0 despite holding a 23-11 edge in shots on goal. Smith has struggled since returning from a lower-body injury two weeks ago that sidelined him for a month.NOTES: Stajan has played 555 games with the Flames. … Anaheim’s Jason Chimera, who shook Stajan’s hand at center ice during warm-up, played in his 1,100th career game. … Flames scratches included TJ Brodie (upper body) and Matthew Tkachuk (upper body)… Josh Manson (upper body) missed his first game of the season for the Ducks.UP NEXTDucks: Play at Winnipeg on Friday night.Flames: Play at San Jose on Saturday.— BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Don’t tell Jason Pominville and the Buffalo Sabres they have nothing to play for.For a team all but mathematically out of playoff contention, the Sabres continued making a dent in in the Eastern Conference playoff race with a 5-3 win against their cross-border and Atlantic Division rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.”It’s an easy game to get prepared for,” said Pominville, one of four Sabres to score a goal and assist. ”You know it’s going to be a great atmosphere in our building with the fans they get.”The Sabres silenced the large contingent of ”Go, Leafs, Go!”-chanting fans by building a 2-0 lead within the first four minutes. And after the Maple Leafs tied the game Luke Schenn Jersey Womens , Buffalo responded by scoring three times and sealed the victory on Johan Larsson’s goal midway through the third period.Ryan O’Reilly, Sam Reinhart and Zemgus Girgensons also scored for Buffalo, while Chad Johnson stopped 38 shots in extending the Maple Leafs’ skid to 0-2-2.Though the Sabres remain at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, they improved to 7-5-2 in their last 14 games. It’s a three-week stretch during which Buffalo has defeated each of the division’s three top teams, including Boston twice.Pominville also showed he hasn’t lost his touch against Toronto.Re-acquired by the Sabres in a trade last summer after a four-plus-season stint in Minnesota, Pominville now has 19 goals and 50 points in 51 career games with Buffalo against Toronto.”Wow,” the former Sabres captain said. ”I should play them more often.”Leo Komarov had two goals and Mitch Marner also scored for Toronto.Frederik Andersen stopped 19 shots in allowing five goals for the second consecutive outing after being yanked midway through a 5-2 loss to Washington in an outdoor game played at the U.S. Naval Academy on Saturday.The only consolation for Andersen this time was he couldn’t be faulted on Buffalo’s first four goals, all of which were set up by fortunate bounces.The Sabres led 2-0 after Reinhart and Pominville deflected in shots from the right point by Rasmus Ristolainen. Girgensons put Buffalo up 3-2 when Reinhart’s shot from a bad angle banked in off his skate.The Sabres received yet another break in going up 4-2 when Toronto defenseman Ron Hainsey’s clearing attempt struck referee Kendrick Nicholson’s skate. The puck caromed directly to O’Reilly, who scored from the right circle.”That was pretty crazy. I think it seemed like everything just hit something and found a way into the net,” Andersen said. ”In the big picture, they earned their bounces.”Leafs coach Mike Babcock couldn’t fault Andersen, though he took issue with the NHL for allowing Larsson’s goal to stand up following a video review for goaltender interference.After stopping Pominville’s one-timer from the left circle, Andersen was knocked off balance from behind by Larsson Womens Niklas Hjalmarsson Jersey , who was skating through the crease. Larsson then corralled the rebound and swept it under Andersen.Babcock challenged the call by saying Larsson first collided with Andersen while the two were in the crease.”What they told me is he was interfered with outside the paint, which is not true and that, tonight, was goalie interference no matter what way you look at it,” Babcock said.Toronto has matched its longest skid of the season, which comes after the Leafs enjoyed a 13-2 run.”The bottom line is you’ve got to get it turned around. We can’t continue to lose hockey games,” Babcock said.NOTES: The Sabres continued their home dominance over Toronto, improving to 19-3-1 in their past 23 meetings at Buffalo. … One of the more amusing moments came when television cameras captured an exchange between Ristolainen and Toronto’s Nazem Kadri, after the two were sent to the penalty box for fighting in the second period. Ristolainen held up four fingers in telling Kadri the teams play four more times. Kadri responded by correcting Ristolainen, saying it’s only three more times because Monday’s game didn’t count. … Maple Leafs LW Matt Martin had an assist while playing for the first time since a 4-2 loss to Colorado on Jan. 22. Martin had been a healthy scratch for 18 consecutive games.UP NEXTMaple Leafs: Get four-day break before hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.Sabres: Host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.—