Different directions: Coyotes lose fourth straight, Ducks win fifth in a row
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Anaheim Ducks wanted to make a statement Friday night against the Arizona Coyotes after losing their first three meetings this season.
Since Anaheim entered with a slim lead over Arizona for the third and final automatic postseason berth in the Pacific Division, this was as good a time as any.
Corey Perry and Andrew Cogliano scored less than 2 minutes apart early in the third period to break open a tie game, and the Ducks extended their winning streak to a season-best six games with a 5-2 victory that put them three points ahead of Arizona with two games in hand.
"It was an important game because we didn't want to give them the thought that they're going to beat us every time, and we need to put some distance between us and them," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "They're a young team with a lot of young guys and they don't know how to quit."
Hampus Lindholm and Mike Santorelli scored 66 seconds apart in the second period, Patrick Maroon had a power-play goal and two assists and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves.
"In the beginning of the season, we had no confidence. But everyone is chipping in now, and everyone has confidence. Trust me," Maroon said. "We have such a close team, so everyone picks each other up and everyone is here for each other."
The Ducks were coming off a 4-1 victory Thursday night over division-leading Los Angeles and are 13-3-1 since losing back-to-back road games to the Islanders and Rangers.
"Today you had two tired teams that played emotional games last night, so there were a lot of mistakes," Boudreau said. "But what I liked was that in the third period we didn't take any penalties and scored three goals."
The Ducks have allowed more than three goals only once in their last 18 games -- a 4-0 home loss to Toronto on Jan. 6.
"We've been scoring, but one big thing is we've been keeping teams to two goals or less," Lindholm said. "We have to keep playing defensive hockey if we want to go somewhere."
Shane Doan had a goal and an assist for Arizona, Tobias Rieder also scored and Anders Lindback stopped 36 shots. The Coyotes are 2-6-2 since a season-best four-game winning streak.
"It's a tight division. You're looking to find a way to get points out of here, but we made too many mistakes tonight to allow us to do that," coach Dave Tippett said.
Perry's 21st goal at 2:07 of the third period gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead. Cogliano added an insurance goal on a perfect setup in front by Kevin Bieksa.
The Coyotes were 1 for 5 on the power play against a penalty-killing unit that began the day with a league-best 89.3 percentage. Anaheim defenseman Sami Vatanen was off for tripping when Doan backhanded a rebound of Antoine Vermette for his team-high 19th goal, tying it at 2.
Doan's 122nd career power-play goal tied Dale Hawerchuk's franchise record and increased his point total to 928, which is one away from Hawerchuk's club mark.
Anaheim outshot Arizona 14-6 during a chippy first period, and the first shot of the game ended up in the back of the Ducks' net when Rieder beat Andersen to the stick side from close range at 1:34.
Anaheim pulled ahead 2-1 with the goals by Lindholm and Santorelli. Lindholm scored at the 4-minute mark of the period, 3 seconds after the Coyotes killed off a hooking penalty against Vermette.
Moments later, Lindback -- making his first start since Jan. 16 -- went behind his net to clear the puck and fanned on it. The forechecking Santorelli took it away from him and backhanded his sixth goal into a wide-open net as defenseman Connor Murphy got to the crease too late to prevent it.
NOTES: Doan played in his 1,427th game with the Coyotes, breaking a tie with Boston's Johnny Bucyk for seventh place in games played with one franchise. ... Coyotes C Boyd Gordon was a healthy scratch. He has no goals in 47 games, one fewer than Edmonton C Anton Lander for the most by any forward this season without one. Los Angeles Kings C Jordan Nolan is still looking for his first goal after 46 games. ... Coyotes rookie LW Max Domi has three goals in his last 26 games, all of them on Jan. 12 against Edmonton, when he got his first NHL hat trick. That was 10 games ago.
