GLENDALE, Ariz. – Once again, the Ducks got to the point of liftoff and ended up scrapping their launch.
Like any coin that has two sides, the Ducks seem to have theirs and they are good and bad. Average teams are often like that, and the flip side to their confident win over the Kings on Sunday was on display one night later in the desert.
Instead of flying postgame, the Ducks waited until Monday morning to head to Arizona and it looked as if several were still stuck at the airport when the puck dropped at Gila River Arena. The Coyotes jumped all over them in the first period and held on for a 3-2 win.
Not only did the Ducks (31-20-10) miss an opportunity to finish a four-game season sweep against a team in the Pacific Division basement but they failed to move past idle Edmonton into second place. The Oilers also have two games in hand.
“It gets frustrating when you want to be heading in the right direction going into the end of the year,” Ducks defenseman Josh Manson said. “You want to be every game building and building and building. And when you take a step back and have a period like we did, I think it’s a little bit frustrating.
“We’ve had that a little bit throughout the year where we’d have a lapse and it would end up costing us a game and we’d be clawing our way back. We got to get that out of our game. Because if you see when we play, we’re a real good hockey club.”
It was too late when that good side showed up. The final tally showed a 36-20 shot advantage for the Ducks. They also didn’t have to deal with Coyotes goalie Mike Smith for much of the third period. He was pulled when he was called into concussion protocol.
But this one was decided early. Arizona scored all three of its goals within the first 15 minutes. And it was often the result of the Ducks either committing defensive breakdowns or simply not getting back to defend properly. Because of that, Jonathan Bernier was victimized in a rare start in goal.
Christian Dvorak scored on the Coyotes’ first shot. He got a breakaway when Cam Fowler was left alone to defend as Kevin Bieksa jumped up to the blue line and Rickard Rakell failed to get back immediately after losing the faceoff in the offensive zone.
Jakob Chychrun made it two goals against Bernier on two shots. On this play, Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf simply failed to track the rookie defenseman and apply a backcheck as an easy one-time shot off Ryan White’s cross-ice pass was put in.
“We stopped skating on both of them,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “That’s not our system. That’s not the way we play.”
Radim Vrbata got the third goal with a pass intended for Martin Hanzal that went off the skate of Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen through Bernier’s pads. And the nightmarish first period would be it for Bernier, who faced only six shots as Carlyle turned to John Gibson to change the momentum.
It was Bernier’s first start since Feb. 4 at Tampa Bay.
“You hate to do it in this situation that we were presented because he’s worked so hard and he’s been a true professional,” Carlyle said. “Out of the three goals, what chances does he have? … You got to do those things to try to stimulate your team and get them going.
“It’s unfortunate it looks bad on him. I think you can lay this one on his teammates.”
Despite trailing all game, the Ducks still had a chance to force overtime. Getzlaf scored his second goal of the night with 26.8 seconds left. And with Gibson again pulled for an extra attacker, Vatanen got off a clean shot in the final second that was stopped by backup Marek Langhamer.
It was a thrilling ending for Langhamer, who was making his NHL debut.
“I saw I had an empty net there,” Vatanen said. “I just couldn’t get it to lift up there. It just stuck on my blade and went right in his pad. He made a nice save though there. You got to bury those and give the team the chance to get some points.”
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