Christian Dvorak scored three goals on Wednesday night, but only two will go down the register.
His third goal came in the skills competition of the evening and it decided the game in favor of the Arizona Coyotes over the Anaheim Ducks in a 4-3 decision.
“It wasn’t our best game, but sometimes you’ve got to win those type of games, and we did,” Dvorak said. “You’ve got to learn from it and be ready for the next one.”
Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves to get the win.
The Ducks dropped to 11-11-4 and 2-2-2 in their last six.
“If seems of late that if we didn’t have no luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all,” Anaheim head coach Dallas Eakins said. “But no frustration at all. I thought our guys played a real solid game, and we’ll try to build off it.”
Brendan Guhle and Sam Steel scored for Anaheim.
“You see the character we have,” Anaheim’s Troy Terry said. “We take the lead, and they score a goal that hits off someone’s pants in front and bounces in, but we weren’t frustrated. Then you take a penalty in 3-on-3 overtime, and it’s hard to kill those for a full two minutes, but — no complaining — you bury your head and go out and kill it, and I’m really proud of those guys.”
Terry had a goal for the Ducks.
“The last six or eight games, I’ve felt really good. It hasn’t been a lack of confidence, it’s mostly just been just a frustration thing,” Terry said. “It’s hard when you’re not getting on the score sheet and you feel like you’re playing good hockey.”
Alex Goligoski also scored for the Coyotes when he tied the game, 3-3.
“We’ve got some guys who’ve got to play defense,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. “It’s a tough game, and [the Ducks] played a hard game. Teams are going to play us hard, so we’ve got to play hard. I’m not calling the players out, but we have to play harder in situations, especially defensively.”
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Coyotes highlights]
John Gibson made 25 saves in the loss.
“It was a fun game — they play a fun style and they’ve got some skill,” Terry said. “They made some plays, but our goalie was pretty unbelievable a couple times.”
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