Ducks Remain Vexed in Overtime, Lose, 2-1

If one were to look at the bright side of things, the Mighty Ducks again managed to grab a point early in the season against a team in their division.

Finding a bright side is becoming tougher as their difficulties in extra periods continued Saturday night. Zbynek Michalek sent the Ducks to their fourth consecutive defeat by netting the winner in overtime to give the Phoenix Coyotes a 2-1 victory at Glendale Arena.

The Ducks have managed three points in that four-game span but could have had six. The last three losses were in overtime or a shootout. They haven’t won an overtime game in four tries, leaving them with a deceiving 7-6-2-2 record.

“You can’t continually miss opportunities to get points when you get into overtime,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “I thought we played fairly well. It’s disappointing, but what other recourse do you have?”

Michalek got the winner at 3:09 of overtime, but Curtis Joseph won the game for Phoenix with a brilliant effort in goal. Joseph, who recently became the ninth goaltender to reach 400 victories, simply wouldn’t let the Ducks take the lead.

The Ducks peppered him for 31 shots in the first two periods but could only manage a goal by Ryan Getzlaf at 13:57 of the second. Many of their 44 shots on Joseph were quality chances that the 16-year veteran foiled.

“He played unbelievable,” said center Sergei Fedorov, who missed 13 games with a groin injury. “Some bounces went his way too but he made his breaks and his team helped him to get the puck out of the crease. He’s a great goalie especially when he sees the puck.”

At 38, the three-time All-Star is playing at a high level, only improving on his 2.28 goals-against average and .923 save percentage heading into the game.

“He’s been playing like this all year,” said Coyote forward Mike Leclerc, a former Duck. “You’re not going to play your best every night and you need your goaltender to steal a game for you once in a while. It’s not like the puck is just hitting him. He’s making saves.”

The Ducks had many chances but none were greater than a four-on-three power-play opportunity at the start of overtime. Teemu Selanne drew a holding penalty on Phoenix’s Shane Doan near the end of regulation.

Selanne, whose frustration showed when he slammed his stick into the boards in the third period, was stopped by Joseph on a leg save with the man advantage early in overtime. Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere had 28 saves but couldn’t knock away Michalek’s shot from the right circle.

“We’ve got to find a way to win some games in overtime,” defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. “A lot of these games are in our division. We do get the point but still to give one away like that when we can have it once in a while. It’s frustrating.”

Defenseman Keith Carney said the Ducks have to find a way to quickly forget about another close loss.

“We’ve just got to take the positives out of the game and improve the next time we’re on the ice,” he said. “It’s definitely frustrating. We’re getting a lot of opportunities but we’re just not capitalizing. It’s not good enough.”