Ducks come out flat and lose again to the Coyotes, 4-2

Antoine Vermette has been around long enough to know scoring droughts happen from time to time.

That only makes them a little easier to endure.

Vermette scored his first goal of the season in the second period and ended Anaheim’s comeback bid with an empty-netter, lifting the Arizona Coyotes to a 4-2 win over the Ducks on Wednesday night.

“When you’re younger, maybe you’re more sensitive to those stretches, but you know if you keep putting in the work, eventually it’s going to come,” said Vermette, who returned to Arizona after winning the Stanley Cup with Chicago last season.

The Coyotes had beaten the Ducks twice already this season behind Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Martin Hanzal. Domi and Duclair were at it again, combining for three points — including a goal in the third period shortly after Anaheim cut the lead to two.

Duclair has scored five of his eight goals against the Ducks this season and has combined with Domi for 11 points in the three games.

Michael Stone also scored and Mike Smith stopped 29 shots for the Coyotes.

The Ducks rallied the night before and twice cut Arizona’s lead to one on third-period goals by Sami Vantanen and Ryan Kesler before Vermette put it away with his empty-netter.

“We can play really good on certain occasions and the next night we don’t play nearly as well,” Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said.

“We had pockets tonight and there were times we looked like we were brain dead.”

The Ducks played Tuesday night at home, rallying to beat Calgary 5-3 behind Ryan Getzlaf’s team record-tying five assists and a relief appearance by goalie John Gibson.

Gibson started against Arizona with Freddie Andersen (illness) out for a second straight game and gave up a goal in the opening five minutes, when Stone scored from near the blue line with the help of Boyd Gordon’s screen.

The Coyotes broke through against the NHL’s best penalty-kill unit early in the second period, with Vermette swiping a rebound off the post for his first regular-season goal since last Feb. 14 against the New York Rangers.

“It’s frustrating,” Getzlaf said. “We’re trying to build off a pretty good game yesterday and should have come in with some excitement, but we came out flat.”