{coyotes} Coyotes top Ducks on Doan's fluke shootout goal

Saturday 27 December 2014

{coyotes} Coyotes top Ducks on Doan's fluke shootout goal

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GLENDALE, Ariz . -- Shane Doan hadn't been selected to take part in a shootout all season. He hadn't put a puck into a net at Gila River Arena all season.

But when Arizona Coyotes coach Dave Tippett called his captain's name in the fourth round of the tiebreaker Saturday, Doan used what he called "my exploding stick shot" to score a one-of-a-kind goal.

Doan broke his stick on his attempted shot, but the blade flew up and over the shoulder of distracted goalie Frederick Andersen while the puck slid inside the post to give the Coyotes a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks.

"I've been using that shot a lot in regular games here. Usually the puck explodes when I try to touch it," said a sarcastic Doan, who has scored all seven of his goals this season on the road. "I was trying to go five-hole and shoot it quicker. It probably would have hit (Andersen) right in the pads if it hadn't broken my blade. I looked at my stick and I couldn't believe it and then I saw the puck in the net out of corner of my eye and I didn't know if it counted or what.

"I was excited when I figured out it was good."

Andersen made 28 saves and stopped Mikkel Boedker, Sam Gagner and Antoine Vermette before Doan's sleight of stick. Andersen said he reacted to the flying blade, which went over his shoulder and the net, for a split-second and that made the difference.

"Too bad you don't get a save for saving the blade," he said.

Doan is now 17-for-37 in his career in shootouts (32.4 percent), but this goal was his first since he scored against the Minnesota Wild on March 8, 2012.

"He didn't show me that move in practice. If he had, maybe I would have used him a little more," Tippett said. "I've been in this game a long time, seen a lot of things, [but I've] never seen that before. You couldn't do it again if you tried a thousand times."

The Coyotes have strung together consecutive wins for the first time since winning three straight from Nov. 2-7. While Doan got the unique goal, the star for Arizona was goalie Devan Dubnyk, who made 36 saves through overtime and four more in the shootout, stopping Dany Heatley, Jakob Silfverberg, Ryan Kesler and Ryan Getzlaf.

Dubnyk has started five of the past six games for Arizona and has stopped 63 of 65 shots in the back-to-back wins against the Edmonton Oilers and Ducks.

After Doan's unlikely shot, it was up to Dubnyk to stop the red-hot Getzlaf (21 points in his past 13 games) to earn the victory.

"I never felt as much pressure to stop a breakaway after that," Dubnyk said. "That has to be the game-winner. There is no other way."

The Coyotes have won two of three games this season against the NHL's top team, with each victory coming in a shootout. The Ducks are 17-0-6 in one-goal games and had won 10 straight and 15 of their past 17 one-goal games.

Rene Bourque scored for Anaheim and Zbynek Michalek for Arizona in the first period.

Getzlaf used his reach to keep control of the puck at the right circle and made a centering pass that the hard-charging Bourque was able to punch past Dubnyk at 9:16. Bourque's second goal of the season enabled Getzlaf to extend his scoring streak to seven games, and his 21 points are the most of any player in the League since Nov. 29.

The Coyotes needed all of 1:13 to even the score; Michalek, who was victimized on the Bourque goal, was able to balance his books.

Gagner had a strong shift with a shot and a nifty setup to Martin Erat in the slot before he ran down a loose put in the corner. Gagner got the puck to Erat, who set up Michalek for a shot from the right point. Gagner skated through the crease and screened Andersen as Michalek's shot found the far top corner of the net.

Michalek's goal was his first in 40 games, dating back to April 1, 2014, against the Winnipeg Jets. Gagner has five points in the past two games after producing 12 in the first 32 games of the season.

"It's a big monkey off my back so it's nice," Michalek said. "We gave up the goal right before that and it felt good to get it back."

That was it. The teams went more than 54 minutes without a goal until the shootout.

The Coyotes had the better of the play in a scoreless second period. Andersen made 10 saves, including the best of the game with nine minutes left. He lost control of Doan's shot but moved quickly to the right post and snared Boedker's rebound try with his glove. Dubnyk matched him a few minutes later, stretching far to the left to grab a shot by Patrick Maroon that was headed for the far corner.

The Ducks turned up the heat in the third period and had the better chances, but Dubnyk stopped all 18 shots he faced. Maroon had a good chance in the final seconds of regulation after turning defenseman Keith Yandle around with a move, but Dubnyk pushed the shot aside to force overtime and set the stage for Doan's rare shootout appearance and even rarer execution.

"I still want to shoot every single time," Doan said. "I don't care if I miss a hundred in a row."

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