Ducks tied atop NHL after win over Coyotes

[March 04, 2015]  GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Ducks general manager Bob Murray hoped that a flurry of trade-deadline moves made Anaheim faster, deeper and more mobile on defense. For one night, all of those boxes were checked.

The Ducks got assists from newcomers Tomas Fleischmann and Simon Despres and two goals from left winger Andrew Cogliano in a thorough 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday at Gila River Arena.

The win was Anaheim's third straight and moved the Ducks into a tie with Nashville for the NHL and Western Conference leads with 89 points.

"I thought all the new guys handled themselves really well," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "It's almost a different kind of team now with the speed that we've got so it's going to be interesting to see if we change systems up or anything."

The Coyotes went to the man advantage for the first time since power-play quarterback Keith Yandle was traded to the New York Rangers on Sunday and the immediate results were disastrous. Defenseman John Moore, one of the players that came back in the deal, lost the puck to Ducks right winger Jakob Silfverberg, who pushed the puck up to center Ryan Kesler.

Kesler cut across the slot past Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and outmuscled center Sam Gagner to rip a shot over goalie Mike Smith's right pad for a 1-0 lead at the 13:34 mark of the first period. It was Kesler's first shorthanded goal with the Ducks and the 11th of his career.

"I saw a defender coming at me and thought I could go inside out at him," Kesler said. "A couple guys were dragging me down, I thought, so I just had to fight them off and try to get the shot off."

Cogliano widened the lead to 2-0 early in the second period on a deflection of Despres' shot from the point. The play was reviewed to determine if his stick was too high. By suiting up in the game, Cogliano set the franchise record for consecutive games played with 277, passing Andy McDonald. Overall, Cogliano is also the NHL's reigning ironman with 605 consecutive games played.

Coyotes left winger Tobias Rieder cut the lead to 2-1 at the 9:30 mark of the second period when he took a nifty feed from Gagner and slipped a backhander under Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen's arm.

The game turned a little chippy when Ducks right winger Corey Perry ran over Smith after a shot attempt. Coyotes right winger Shane Doan and Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf eventually came to blows with Doan taking Getzlaf to the ice in the battle of team captains. Doan was emotional on Monday after the Coyotes unloaded teammates and friends Yandle, Antoine Vermette and Zbynek Michalek at the trade deadline so the fight was an emotional release.

"I thought our guys competed hard, whether it's sticking up for one another or Shane getting in a tussle," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "It's just part of the game."

Silfverberg restored a two-goal lead for the Ducks when he gloved the rebound of his own shot, dropped it onto his stick and slipped a shot between Smith's pads at 7:21 of the third period. Cogliano added an empty netter.

The loss was the 10th straight for the Coyotes, matching the longest losing streak in Jets/Coyotes franchise history. This is the third such streak for the franchise and is the longest since the team moved from Winnipeg to Arizona in 1996.

"There's still a couple mistakes that we're making that we need to get out of our game and that's why we're losing those games," Rieder said. "It was a little different today with a lot of new guys in the room but we'll do our best to finish the season strong."

NOTES: Ducks GM Bob Murray fielded calls at the trade deadline about RW Matt Beleskey. "Right now, it was more important to keep Matt and take our chances in the future," Murray said. ... Newly acquired D Klas Dahlbeck and D John Moore, who came to Arizona in trade-deadline deals, were in the lineup Tuesday. So were LW Tye McGinn and RW Craig Cunningham, whom Arizona claimed off waivers from San Jose and Boston, respectively. ... Newly acquired D Simon Despres, LW Jiri Sekac and LW Tomas Fleischmann were in the lineup for Anaheim. Among the Ducks' other trade deadline acquisitions, D James Wisniewski and D Korbinian Holzer will join the team Wednesday in Anaheim. C Michael Sgarbossa is bound for Norfolk of the AHL. ... Beleskey (shoulder), D Sami Vatanen (leg) and RW Tim Jackman (lower body) are still on injured reserve. ... The Coyotes named C Kyle Chipchura and D Oliver Ekman-Larsson alternate captains for the rest of the season.

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