The Anaheim
Ducks are lethal against any opponent right now. The struggling
Phoenix Coyotes
were no match Saturday. Sami
Vatanen, Dustin
Penner and Ryan
Getzlaf scored during a 5:11 span of the second period, and the
red-hot Ducks beat the Coyotes 5-3 for their 16th win in their past
17 games. Hampus
Lindholm scored in the first and third periods for Anaheim, which
got three assists from Mathieu
Perreault and two from Corey
Perry to complete a five-game sweep of the Coyotes this season.
The Ducks (34-8-5) are the seventh team to win 16 or more games in a
17-game span, and the first since the 2009-10 Washington Capitals.
They have scored at least four goals in a franchise-record six
straight games (29 total goals) and have 73 points, the most in the
NHL. Jonas
Hiller made 28 saves and is 22-4-4 after his 13th straight win,
matching the Detroit Red Wings' Chris Osgood for the longest winning
streak by a goalie since 1995-96.
"It's a great thing, but I'm more excited
about winning. The personal things are the cherry on the cake,"
Hiller said. "We talked about wanting to win the whole
series, every game. We might face [Phoenix] in the playoffs, and we
want to make sure we have the confidence against them."
After scoring his 23rd goal, Getzlaf left the game
late in the second period after taking a shot of his right foot.
Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said X-rays were negative, adding
Getzlaf was held out as a precaution.
"By the time he got back from X-rays …
we were a third of the way through the period," Boudreau
said. "We figured it was better that he ice it and get ready
for tomorrow (when the Ducks host the Red Wings). I'm sure if it was
a different situation, he would have gone in."
Coyotes goalie Thomas
Greiss allowed four goals on 23 shots. Coach Dave Tippett pulled
Greiss in favor of Mike
Smith after Getzlaf capped the three-goal surge. The Coyotes
ended a disappointing 2-4-0 homestand and have gone 3-7-2 in their
past 12 games at Jobing.com Arena. They are 7-10-6 after a 14-4-4
start.
"Right now, we're not very good, and we
haven't been very good for a while," Phoenix captain Shane
Doan said. "We've been fooling ourselves with finding
ways to come back and get points."
Lauri
Korpikoski, Martin
Hanzal and Mike
Ribeiro scored for Phoenix. Hanzal added an assist and Radim
Vrbata tied a career high with three assists.
"I turned one over and they scored after
it. I've been terrible, so I take a lot of the blame for that,"
said Coyotes defenseman Keith
Yandle, who was minus-3 for the second straight game. "I'm
not helping my team win. I've got to get back to doing things right."
Korpikoski gave the Coyotes an early 1-0 lead with
his third goal in four games, but the Ducks rallied to win for the
16th time in 21 games win which they have allowed the first goal.
Greiss was down and out after a save on Nick
Bonino when Lindholm scooped up the rebound and slid it between
two defenders at 12:27 of the first period. Lindholm's fourth goal of
the season snapped Griess' shutout streak at 109:59, dating to Dec.
28 when he allowed Saku
Koivu's winning goal in overtime at Anaheim. Three of Anaheim's
goals came from defensemen. After going without a goal in the first
14 games this season, the Ducks' defense has 21 in 33 games.
"We had chances early in the year, we just
didn't get them in," Lindholm said after his first career
two-goal game. "We kept shooting the puck and believing in
ourselves, and now it's starting to fall in."
The second period was all Ducks, and the Phoenix
collapse started with a soft goal. Perreault fanned on a shot attempt
between the circles, but the puck slid to the point and Vatanen
ripped a one-timer. Greiss saw the shot all the way, but the puck
squeezed between his pads and trickled over the goal line at 5:44.
"Tough goal," Tippett said.
"That's where you'd like to think that you can overcome those
things. A cohesive group would overcome that thing, a non-cohesive
group doesn't. I think sometimes you get in funks where you're kind
of out of sorts. We're out of sorts right now."
Penner made it 3-1 at 9:11 with a blast from the
left circle, one-timing a Perry feed from behind the net over Greiss'
blocker. Getzlaf pushed the lead to 4-1 at 10:55, faking Greiss to
the ice before switching to the backhand to fill an empty net.
Lindholm scored his second goal on the power play at 6:10 of the
third, beating Smith to make it 5-1. Hanzal countered with a 5-on-3
goal at 11:16 for Phoenix, and Ribeiro scored on the power play with
1:50 left.
At 8:50 of the third period Rostislav Klesla had a fight with Anaheim goon Patrick Maroon. Both received fighting majors.
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