Naumenko Can’t Save Ducks in His First Start

Don’t tell Gregg Naumenko that Friday’s game between the Mighty Ducks and the Phoenix Coyotes at the Arrowhead Pond was meaningless.

Naumenko became only the seventh goaltender to start a game for the eight-season-old Ducks and he didn’t fare any better than Guy Hebert, Ron Tugnutt, Mikhail Shtalenkov, Tom Askey, Dominic Roussel or Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Naumenko made 18 saves in his first NHL start, but suffered a 5-2 loss before an announced crowd of 16,082. Phoenix goalie Robert Esche made 32 saves to win the battle of rookie goalies.

“I guess it could have gone better for me, but the first one’s over and we’ll see where it goes from here,” Naumenko said. “Obviously, I would have liked to have done better than I did. Everybody’s got to start somewhere. I know now I can play at this level. I learned from [tonight].”

After tying the team record with 23 consecutive starts, Giguere finally took a seat on the bench Friday. Giguere would have surpassed Hebert’s 1996-97 mark if the Coyotes still had been alive in the Stanley Cup playoff race. But the Coyotes were eliminated after a 3-0 loss Thursday to the San Jose Sharks.

Giguere was 9-9-5 with a 2.32 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage during his streak.

But when Phoenix went belly up, Coach Guy Charron decided to give the rookie a chance to start against the Coyotes. Naumenko’s NHL experience until Friday had been limited to a relief appearance in which he gave up two goals in the Ducks’ 8-0 loss March 21 against the Dallas Stars. He was 20-12-3 in 39 games for Cincinnati of the American Hockey League.

“I’d rather play, but I’m happy for Gregg because he’s worked really hard,” said Giguere, who assumed the starting job when Hebert was picked up on waivers by the New York Rangers on March 7. “When I got here, if you told me I would play 20 games in a row, I would have laughed at you. I never thought that would happen.”

Naumenko looked jittery at times, giving up goals to Mika Alatalo and Brad May in the first period, Shane Doan in the second and Michal Handzus (shorthanded) and Daniel Briere (power play) in the third. But he also stopped Briere on a second-period breakaway moments after Doan’s goal gave Phoenix a 3-2 lead at 17:44.

Rookie center Marc Chouinard and winger Paul Kariya (power play) scored for the Ducks, whose five-game home winning streak ended. Defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski had a superb night, goading the undisciplined Coyotes into taking numerous penalties against him after he delivered several tough but legal hits early in the game.