Recap: Ducks Close Out 2017 with 5-2 Victory Over Arizona

ANAHEIM - An eventful 2017 for the Anaheim Ducks will come to an end with a satisfying victory on home ice.

In a year that included a trip to the Western Conference Final last spring, and a battle through a litany of injuries in the fall and winter, the Ducks closed it out with a 5-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes in a New Year's Eve matinee at Honda Center. It was the fourth win in the last five games for the Ducks, who enter 2018 in playoff position for the time being.
Rickard Rakell had two goals on the night and Cam Fowler's beautiful shot with eight minutes left in the third period elicited a booming roar from the sellout crowd and gave the Ducks a lead they never relinquished.
After the Ducks held a one-goal advantage for much of the night, Arizona tied the game with a little over 13 minutes left on the second of back-to-back power plays, as Clayton Keller was able to tip the puck under goalie John Gibson.
But the Ducks got the lead back five minutes later after Fowler pounced on the puck in the high slot and slung a wrist shot top corner to make it 3-2. "It's a prime scoring area," Fowler said. "I felt like last game I had some good chances and I didn't feel like I made the most out of them. I kind of gave them away and quickly got them on net instead of trying to bear down. I focused on bearing down tonight. I was happy to see it go in."

Jakob Silfverberg virtually put the game away with 2:47 left, weaving into the slot and firing a shot through goalie Antti Raanta, and Antoine Vermette slammed the door by skating the puck into the empty net off a Ryan Kesler pass with 50.3 remaining.

Vermette skated on the top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Rakell and had that goal to go along with two assists. "At the end of the day, you just want to contribute to the team's success regardless of where you play," he said. "You just want to chip in and have an impact. You want to keep grabbing points. We needed those points. We had to push all the way through 60 minutes to get it. It's rewarding."

A hot Rakell stayed hot in scoring the game's first goal four minutes into the first period. His shot off an Antoine Vermette pass was initially stopped by Raanta, but the rebound was deflected off the skate of Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson snuck under Raanta. It was Rakell's fifth goal in as many games and his team-leading 13th on the season.

Arizona tied it later in the period on the power play when Brendan Perlini's wrister from the wing darted inside the near post.
Rakell got his second of the night less than a minute later in fine fashion, banging home a Getzlaf pass from the right wing circle.

"It was a sloppy second period for us. I'm not sure what's going on with the second period lately, but it seems to be our Achilles heel at the moment," Fowler said. "We were able to get back to our style of hockey in the third. I really liked our response. The one thing I liked is once we got a goal to make it 3-2, we didn't sit back. We kept pushing and kept our foot on the gas. That's what you have to do."
After three straight at home, the Ducks start 2018 with five in a row on the road, which includes a mandated bye week January 7-12.