PHOENIX—The Ducks pick up their second win, this time in regulation. Scoring three unanswered goals in the second period gave the Anaheim Ducks a 4-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena Saturday night. Dustin Penner scored two goals to give the Ducks a two-game winning streak on their short road trip before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Anaheim began the game with the notion that Phoenix was five points behind. In a move to prevent their recent win from becoming a foundation, Penner gave his team the lead on a power play wrister for his fifth of the season. The Ducks 1-0 was a response after giving the Coyotes three chances on the power play that their penalty killing unit took care of. In those three chances and the period as a whole, the Coyotes outshot their opponents 15-8 through 20 minutes.
The Coyotes came out in the second sticks blazing as they tried to tie the game before it would get out of hand. Mike Ribeiro connected on a rebound from Derek Morris whose drive found Ribero on the glove side of Jonas Hiller for his seventh on the year. Penner regained the lead for his team with his second of the night on Phoenix goaltender Mike Smith. Corey Perry added a team leading 13th goal on a wrist shot that he set up with considerable ease as the Coyotes defense seemed to fall apart.
The frustration hit the Coyotes like a ton of bricks as Paul Bissonnette scuffled with Ducks right winger Devante Smith-Pelly to give the Ducks their third chance on the man advantage. They scored on the power play with Finnish native Sami Vatanen scoring his second of the season to give his team the three goal lead. Coyote’s coach Dave Tippett pulled Smith from the net to give second stringer Thomas Greiss a chance to save the game.
With a three goal lead, the third period the last chance for the Coyotes to make a comeback to hold on to a flawless regulation record at home.Phoenix captain Shane Doan scored on a tip from Oliver Ekman-Larsson at the far end to cut the lead in half, but could not make up the extra ground. Greiss did save the score from going any further out of the team’s reach with four saves in the final period. The damage had already been done giving Smith his fourth loss making 19 saves out of 23.
Hiller who had taking the shorter schedule during the month of November fared well in back to back meetings winning his second in a row with a season high 44 saves and a .955 save percentage. With a game in Dallas on Wednesday, the Ducks hope that their lead in the Western Conference doesn’t overcook before they can get to the table the next day.
