from Eric Stephens of the OC Register,

Maybe all it took was a goalie who has beaten the Ducks often in the past to get the Calgary Flames to finally free themselves from the Honda Center spell.

Mike Smith was brought in to hopefully lift the Flames to the playoffs and beyond the first round but his job Monday night was simply to give Calgary a chance to break improbable and unimaginable losing streaks in a place that hasn’t been the happiest on earth.

It was a job well done.

All streaks eventually end and the Ducks’ mastery of the Flames did. Smith was largely why, making 43 saves for his first shutout with his new club in Calgary’s 2-0 win that snapped a 25-game winless drought against the host Ducks that stretched back 13 years in the regular season.

The last triumph for the Flames during the regular schedule came on Jan. 19, 2004, when the Ducks had Jean-Sebastien Giguere in their net and Roman Turek held it down for the Flames. Turek and Giguere have hung up their goalie pads long ago.

“When you play a team that long and you’re not on the winning part of it, it gets old pretty fast,” Smith said. “I know I’ve been on teams where it’s happened to me so I wanted to help this team get over that hump.”

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Below, watch the extended game highlights plus videos involving Corey Perry and Kevin Bieksa...