Coyotes Let Ducks Know They Can’t Win ‘Em All

Just in case the Mighty Ducks were feeling invincible, the Phoenix Coyotes hit them with a dose of reality Monday night at the Pond of Anaheim.

The Coyotes hit them along the boards and in front of the net too, for a hard-earned 2-1 victory.

Phoenix built a 1-0 lead in the second period, lost it in the third, then seized it back on Jeremy Roenick’s goal in the game’s final four minutes.

Roenick’s sharp-angle goal from the right wing came at the 16:17 mark of the third period and made the Ducks losers for only the fourth time in the past 14 games.

One loss probably isn’t enough to derail the Ducks’ hot streak, but Monday’s game showed what happens when their top players, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, are held in check.

Phoenix halted both with a thud. Kariya was coming off a career-best five-point game (two goals, three assists) Friday against Calgary. Selanne had a nine-game point streak going into Monday.

“We played a tight-checking game and shut down their top guys,” Roenick said.

Said Duck winger Warren Rychel, “They [Kurri and Selanne] can’t score two or three goals every game. We have to grind it out.”

Down and almost out, 1-0, against a team they have dominated in their four-year history, the Ducks turned for help to . . .

Their goon line?

Yep, the fourth line of Rychel, Ken Baumgartner and Ted Drury produced the game-tying goal at the 7:59 mark of the third period.

After more than two periods of misdirected shots, off-target passes and on-again, off-again momentum, the tough guys bailed out their more skilled teammates.

Rychel tapped a rebound into an empty net after Phoenix goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin lost his stick during a goalmouth scramble. Defenseman David Karpa dumped the puck on net, Baumgartner took a swipe at the rebound and Drury was there too.

Finally, Rychel gained control at the left post. But in typical enforcer fashion he showed he had no finishing touch, fanning on his first attempt.

He didn’t miss on the second, though, and the Ducks at last rallied to tie, 1-1.

The tie didn’t last, however, as Roenick made the Phoenix franchise winners for the first time in seven games at the Pond. As the Winnipeg Jets, the franchise was winless in six games in Anaheim.

“We did everything tonight but score,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said.

The Coyotes hardly resembled the same disorganized outfit that on Sunday was humbled, 7-2, by the Calgary Flames, a team the Ducks had routed, 7-0, Friday.

Phoenix took the game to the Ducks for long stretches in the first period, but had nothing to show for it except a 15-13 advantage in shots on goal. The Ducks appeared a step slow when it counted, looking as if they and not Phoenix was playing for the second consecutive night.

The edge in shots was at least a small bit of encouraging news for the Coyotes, who always had a miserable time at the Pond before moving from Winnipeg to Phoenix after last season.

The Coyotes calmly kept firing away and, soon enough, good things happened for them.

Darrin Shannon primed the pump for Phoenix early in the second period, unleashing a slap shot that Duck goalie Guy Hebert managed to deflect off the goal post

Mike Gartner then gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at the 2:01 mark of the second period with a slap shot that beat Hebert, who had a scoreless streak of more than 94 minutes, dating to the Ducks’ 5-4 victory over Washington on Dec. 13.

Gartner simply had too much open space and he made the Ducks pay with his 16th goal of the season.

Cliff Ronning set up the goal, gaining control of a loose puck in the right-hand corner and slipping a pass to Gartner, who was standing alone in the right faceoff circle.

Gartner controlled the puck with his left skate, then fired a low slap shot past Hebert.

The Ducks pressed for a tying goal in the second period, but couldn’t click against Khabibulin, who stopped 20 of 22 shots in 35 minutes of relief work against Calgary on Sunday.

The Ducks’ last, best chances of the period came during a 53-second five-on-three advantage in the final two minutes. Earlier in the period, Kariya wheeled away from a defender at the right point, drove to the net, then delivered a cross-ice pass to Jari Kurri in the left circle.

Khabibulin appeared to be out of position, taken by surprise by Kariya’s pass. But Kurri failed to put the puck on net.