Sykora’s Best Work Comes in Overtime

Petr Sykora, arms raised, waited to greet on-rushing teammates. Moments before, he had taken a drop pass from Sandis Ozolinsh and rocketed a shot into the upper right corner of the net.

As memory served the Mighty Ducks, this was something to feel good about.

Sykora’s goal, 3 minutes 43 seconds into overtime, gave the Ducks a 2-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes Sunday in front of 14,269 at the Arrowhead Pond. There was relief apparent in the immediate celebration and in the postgame hindsight.

After four consecutive losses -- the last two in overtime -- this was a team that was waiting to exhale.

“I hate to think what would have happened if we didn’t win this game,” team captain Steve Rucchin said. “We came out on top. That was a huge play by a big part of our team, by Petie. Hopefully, this will help us get the monkey off our back.”

Sykora had gone seven games without a goal. He had eight previous shots stopped by two Coyote goalies on Sunday.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 29 of 30 shots. More important, he picked up his second victory this season.

Ozolinsh, Sergei Fedorov and Vaclav Prospal were the dangerous offensive threats their resumes suggest.

“We’ve been dying to have an effort,” Coach Mike Babcock said. “You want to leave each night, you want to be proud of how well you prepared and how hard you worked. We haven’t been able to do that very many nights.”

The immediate satisfaction was clear. The long-term effect remains to be seen.

“I think there is no switch you can go through and say, ‘Now we’re going to be great,’ ” Sykora said. “We have to continue to do those little things. We won a game in overtime, maybe that will give us a little extra confidence.... This is a start, let’s really hope so.”

Sykora certainly needed the boost. He led the Ducks with 34 goals last season, but had come up empty since a three-game goal-scoring streak that ended Oct. 24.

There was a clear determination to end that dry spell. Sykora had a week’s worth of opportunities, being denied first by goalie Zac Bierk and then by Sean Burke, who took over after Bierk injured a hip muscle in the first period.

That drought ended when he lined up a shot on Burke and fired high.

“Finally it went in,” Sykora said. “I’m not just going out there trying to score goals. I’m trying to create offense. I guess I didn’t create enough offense. Tonight a lot of guys, Sergei or Vinny or me, we could have had more than one goal.”

The opportunities came from a novel idea: put the puck on net.

The Ducks out-shot the Coyotes, 46-28.

“That’s been a big Achilles’ heel for us,” Babcock said. “We always want to make one more pass, one more cute play. I don’t know why, because it is sure not what we ask. It was nice to see us stick to it tonight.”

The Ducks had 17 shots on goal in the first period.

Rucchin gave the Ducks the lead with the sixth short-handed goal of his career. He took the puck away from defenseman David Tanabe at the wall and made a bull-like charge on the net, firing a shot that clipped off the left post and into the net at 14:17 for his third goal in two games.

That held until late in the second period, when Ladislav Nagy turned and fired a shot past Giguere, who was screened on the play, tying the score, 1-1, at 18:34.