Ducks do barely enough to get by

Not long ago, the Phoenix Coyotes were but a worn-out drum the Ducks merrily beat on.

It was a droning, repetitive beat as 11 meetings over two seasons had ended in 10 Ducks’ victories. But that changed in December when Phoenix goalie Mikael Tellqvist silenced them in a shutout victory.

And for another 47 minutes Wednesday night, the Ducks were about to reach a similar conclusion against the Coyotes’ Curtis Joseph until Travis Moen and Andy McDonald opted for a different ending.

Moen and McDonald scored goals 82 seconds apart in the third period to rally the Ducks to a 2-1 victory before another announced sellout crowd of 17,174 at the Honda Center.

The Ducks haven’t lost to Phoenix at home since Oct. 13, 2003, but this victory didn’t come without a fight.

“The way I look at it, I think we’re going to see a lot more of this type of hockey as we get into the meat of the last 30 games here,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “There’s going to be divisional and conference opponents and everybody is desperate for points.

“When you play desperate teams, you’re going to have to earn your space on the ice.”

Joseph, whose 440 victories rank fifth in NHL history, made a one-goal lead stand up with an array of big stops among his 38 saves. But the Ducks’ persistence paid off.

After the Ducks killed a penalty, defenseman Francois Beauchemin knocked Phoenix’s Keith Ballard off the puck and Chris Kunitz picked it up after getting out of the penalty box.

Kunitz got a pass to Moen, whose backhand try on the rush was stopped by Joseph. Moen stayed with the play and circled back to get the loose puck and banged into the net for a 1-1 tie.

“I was a little mad that I hit [Joseph] and I felt I could have held on to it a second later and had the whole net,” Moen said. “I just turned the corner and the puck kind of found me. I just threw it on net and got lucky.”

On the play, the Ducks drew two penalties as Oleg Saprykin was called for hooking and Travis Roche was whistled for interference. Moen’s goal wiped out Saprykin’s delayed penalty but McDonald capitalized with his one-timer at 8:55 of the third while Roche sat in the box.

“Sometimes you make the mistake of straying from your game plan because you’re not getting the bounces or you’re not scoring goals,” McDonald said. “Joseph played extremely well.”

The Ducks (32-12-8) won their second in a row after the All-Star break and extended their lead over San Jose in the Pacific Division to five points.

It was needed as they prepare to play Nashville, followed by back-to-back games against the second-place Sharks.

“These are all big games,” Beauchemin said. “There won’t be any easy ones, especially with the stretch coming up.”

For a while, it looked as if Joseph would be the hero.

Late in the first period, Phoenix winger Fredrik Sjostrom walked in with a breakout pass from Ballard and Sjostrom tucked in a shot past Jean-Sebastien Giguere for a 1-0 lead that Joseph made stand up until the Ducks’ late heroics.

eric.stephens@latimes.com