Arizona Coyotes Bear Down on the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in Shootout

The Arizona Coyotes come back from behind to defeat the 10-3-1 Anaheim Ducks

The Arizona Coyotes have finally found their rhythm, as they leave Honda Center in Anaheim with yet another two points.

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The Coyotes started off the game competitive but unable to keep up, falling behind 2-0 by the first intermission.

The game started to shift in Arizona’s favor before those first twenty minutes were even over, though, with the desert dogs gaining momentum in the final few minutes prior to the first intermission.

The second period was total Coyotes domination, with Arizona scoring two back-to-back goals in :58 seconds in order to bring the game to a 2-2 tie. The Coyotes almost matched the Ducks in SOG during that pivotal second period; while the first twenty minutes of the game almost saw the Coyotes getting outshot by double, the second period saw ten scoring chances for the team out of Glendale- and only thirteen for the host squad.

November 7, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Arizona Coyotes right wing Shane Doan (19), goalie Mike Smith (41), center Martin Hanzal (11) and center Antoine Vermette (50) celebrate the 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks following the shootout period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Smith and Shane Doan played the part of veteran leaders perfectly from start to finish, with Doan taking home his 33rd career goal against Anaheim and Smith making 37 saves on 39 shots to post a season-high .949 SV%.

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Smith played the puck more often than not, but his refusal to be rushed- he passed to his teammates with almost eerie perfection time and time again, seemingly ignorant of the slew of Ducks skaters bearing down on him- kept the team from losing focus against an extremely gritty, demanding divisional rival. The Coyotes played a stellar game in the crease, and the team’s defensive play displayed the kind of top-notch performance that many Arizona fans were expecting out of the blue line coming into October.

Some of the breakout performances out of Arizona-beyond that of Smith and Doan, of course- came from Tobias Rieder, Martin Hanzal, and Sam Gagner. Rieder leads the team in +/- already this season-and while he was conveniently safely ensconced in Portland during the team’s worst slump, it would be insane to think that the team would be doing nearly as well without him on the ice.

Sam Gagner and Martin Hanzal played gritty games against the Ducks; Hanzal seemed to have Ryan Getzlaf’s number, and Gagner created a number of scoring opportunities for his own franchise that gave fans hope for him as a playmaker in the team’s long-term future.

Finally, the team cannot overlook the value of Keith Yandle in this game. In addition to being on fire offensively, the blue liner stopped shot after shot and rebound after rebound from the Ducks.

The game went from being clean but powerful in the first forty minutes to ‘a game of special teams’ in the final twenty, but neither team managed to capitalize on their power play opportunities in order to end the game in regulation. Overtime failed to see a goal out of either franchise, and the game was taken to a shootout.

When Mike Smith is on fire, he’s really on fire- and after allowing the first breakaway shootout chance to slip past him (taken by Anaheim’s Jakob Silfverberg), he stopped the next two to bring home an overtime shootout win for his team.

Shot of the Game:

With an absolute beauty of a shot, captain Shane Doan tied up the game just :58 seconds after Rob Klinkhammer opened up scoring for the Arizona squad.