Vermette, Rakell carry Ducks past Coyotes

ANAHEIM-- Antoine Vermette had a goal and two assists for the Anaheim Ducks in a 5-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Honda Center on Sunday.

Rickard Rakell scored twice, Cam Fowler and Jakob Silfverberg each had a goal and an assist, Ryan Kesler got his first two assists of the season, and John Gibson made 23 saves for Anaheim (18-14-8), which has won four of its past five games.
Rakell has scored in five straight games (eight points; six goals, two assists). Ryan Getzlaf also had two assists, and he and Vermette were each plus-4 to match his NHL career high.
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Ducks highlights]
Brendan Perlini and Clayton Keller scored power-play goals for Arizona (9-27-5), and Antti Raanta made 21 saves.

Fowler gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead with 8:09 left in the third period.
"I felt like last game I had some good chances and I didn't feel like I made the most out of them," Fowler said. "I focused on bearing down tonight. I was happy to see it go in."
Silfverberg scored with 2:47 left to make it 4-2, and Vermette scored into an empty net with 51 seconds remaining.
"I thought we played a good game until then," Keller said. "They were able to put one in our net, and then obviously the empty-net goal, but I think it was a lot closer than what the score said."
Keller tied it 2-2 at 6:52 of the third. The Ducks killed a 5-on-3 that lasted 37 seconds before Derek Stepan took a shot from the blue line that Keller deflected to extend his point streak to eight games (three goals, six assists).

The Ducks took a 1-0 lead earlier than 8:10 into a game for the fifth straight time.
Getzlaf passed to Vermette along the wall at the Arizona blue line. Vermette, who was moved from fourth-line center to left wing on the top line, brought the puck into the zone and fed Rakell coming down the middle. His shot was saved, but the rebound came out and hit the skate of Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and went into the net at 4:02.
"They're great players. They make a lot of room," Vermette said of his linemates. "They're patient with the puck and they find ways to get the puck and slow things down. I thought we read off each other pretty well filling lanes and making plays."
The Coyotes tied it 1-1 on a power-play goal by Perlini at 11:04. Anaheim was called for too many men on the ice and then failed to clear the puck when it had possession. Perlini took a wrist shot from the top of the right circle with Christian Dvorak providing the screen.
"We were in the game, so any way that we can get a goal would obviously be great," Perlini said. "We were all up for it, and nobody was down or anything like that."
Getzlaf assisted on Rakell's second goal at 11:47 of the first period for a 2-1 lead. Vermette knocked the puck away from Arizona defenseman Luke Schenn behind the net and it went to Getzlaf, who backhanded a pass to Rakell, who had moved into the right circle.

Goal of the game

Fowler's goal at 11:51 of the third period.

Save of the game

Gibson's save on Keller at 5:24 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Rakell's goal at 11:47 of the first period.

They said it

"We had a couple breakdowns and some crucial mistakes at the wrong time and it was in our net, and that seems to be the story of our team. We had about five or six chances where we missed the net, and Fowler gets one chance and boom, it's in our net." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"We were just trying to find balance in our lineup and trying to put people in places they could be comfortable with and give them an opportunity to have success. We're a work in progress. We haven't had our team together for more than four or five games now." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle

Need to know

Perlini's 24 goals since his NHL debut on Dec. 5, 2016 lead the Coyotes. … Getzlaf has 10 assists in the past five games, and 63 points (19 goals, 44 assists) in 63 games against the Coyotes. ... Silfverberg has five points (one goal, four assists) in his four-game point streak. ... The only other time Getzlaf finished plus-4 was in a 4-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings on April 5, 2008. … Anaheim has outscored its opponent 7-0 in the opening 10:35 of the past five games.

What's next

Coyotes: Host the Nashville Predators on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Ducks: At the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-W, NHL.TV)