Ducks Lose in Shootout, 3-2

A surprisingly energetic Ducks team played well enough to earn a point but ran out of steam against a Phoenix Coyotes team that turned up the intensity after a big hit by James Wisniewski on Shane Doan. Doan was bleeding from the face and woozy as he tried to stand up after the open-ice hit, but later returned to the game and played well for the Coyotes, helping them to a 3-2 shootout victory.

The play occurred as Doan was carrying the puck up the neutral zone in the first period. Doan seemed to slow down a little bit to wait for teammates to catch up when Wisniewski stepped up and got his forearm into the head area of Doan. Doan struggled to get up a few different times before the officials blew the play dead so he could get off the ice. Doan skated off on his own power and returned to the game, playing limited minutes in the second but extensively in the third and shootout.

Before the spirited play began, though, Phoenix already held a one goal lead on a power play goal. The Ducks surrendered the goal under four minutes into the game, something that’s become a bad habbit for the team this season.

Corey Perry would even the score in the second period on a Ducks power play. Ryan Getzlaf zipped the puck to Saku Koivu who was standing at the bottom of the face-off dot. Koivu then passed the puck to the top of the crease where Perry was standing, but Perry had to make a nice play to kick the puck from his feet to his stick before putting the puck past goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

The game would remained tied at one goal apiece for the next 22 minutes before a Teemu Selanne goal. Selanne came streaking into the offensive zone on the right wing before deciding to take a slap shot that fooled Bryzgalov. A slow-motion replay showed the puck knuckling and dropping a few inches as it got to Bryzgalov, who had raised his right shoulder to make the save only to see the puck flutter underneath his arm.

But the Ducks’ lead would only last 18 seconds as Phoenix tied the game on the next shift. Both teams would rack up the scoring chances for the rest of the game and overtime before going to a shootout that saw only one goal scored.

After Phoenix scored on their first attempt against Jonas Hiller, Perry swooped in wide from the right side and tried to shoot five-hole, but was easily stopped by Bryzgalov. Doan then shot the puck squarely off the post before Getzlaf was stoned by Bryzgalov. Lauri Korpikoski then hit the post again before Selanne’s attempt was gloved by Bryzgalov to earn the victory for the Coyotes on Halloween night.

The Ducks played a solid game, and it was more impressive considering they played last night and traveled after the game. It was nice to see some physical play from the Ducks as they took hits and gave them, but also played disciplined hockey and didn’t retaliate. That restraint eventually led to the Ducks having seven power play chances to only three for the Coyotes.

Penalty killing was again one of the negative parts of the Ducks’ game tonight as they gave up a goal early in the game. The team has started to clean up their game, taking fewer penalties recently, but the PK unit is still unable to go a full game without giving up a goal in recent games.

Hiller played in back-to-back games for the first time this season, performing extremely well. The only two goals he was beat on were impossible for him to stop as his defense should have done a better job at stopping cross-ice passes. Hiller made 30 saves while giving up two goals and taking the shootout loss.

Evgeny Artyukhin was back in the lineup after serving a three-game suspension for a slew-footing incident that occurred against the Dallas Stars. He played ten minutes and was effective, but also provided a nice boost as his legs were the freshest out there for the Ducks, who began to wear down as the game reached overtime.

Speaking of tired legs, Scott Niedermayerplayed almost thirty minutes as Wisniewski was in the penalty box for ten minutes for two fighting majors. The first came after he hit Doan when Keith Yandlechallenged him, and the second came in the second period when Doan decided to drop the gloves to try to get some revenge. Both times the Coyotes’ players was given an extra two minutes and put the Ducks on the power play.