The Anaheim Ducks fall to the Phoenix Coyotes in another 5-4 shootout

By Michelle Drinnenberg
Matt Kartozian- USA TODAY Sports

On Monday night, the Anaheim Ducks faced off against the Phoenix Coyotes for the second time out of their third consecutive rematch this month. The Ducks lost in another shootout 5-4 at Jobing.com Arena and here are my highlights of the game.

The good: Ryan Getzlaf had a strong performance with one goal and two assists for the night. His shorthanded goal in the the final seconds of the middle period tied the game at two. Once again, Getzlaf not only creates space for himself, as he did on his partial break goal, but he buys time for his teammates like he did in overtime as he broke up a pass and reversed back to buy time for a line change.

The bad: This goes to Jonas Hiller after allowing a weak goal from Shane Doan to tie the game 11 seconds after Corey Perry had given the team a 3-2 lead in the early third. That was Doan’s 800th point with the franchise.

The ugly: By no means am I harping on Hiller tonight, but his puck handling skills are atrocious and almost Jean Sebastien-Giguere-esque. Want an example? For starters, you can take a gander at his delay of game penalty in the second, which gave the Desert Dogs their first lead of the game and allowed Steve Sullivan to capitalize on the power play. Hiller needs to strengthen this part of his game if he wants to be like Martin Brodeur or he can just stay in his crease. I’m a fan of the latter strategy.

The facts: The ‘Yotes beat the Ducks in another 5-4 shootout on home ice and played just about identical games in the same fashion as the Ducks blew their leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3.

The stats: The Ducks tallied their first shorthanded goal and the Coyotes allowed their first shorthanded goal of the season.

I’m definitely disappointed with Anaheim’s lack of holding a lead in the state of Arizona, but I can’t hold too much against them when they still find ways to collect a point from games such as these.

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