Smith’s blunder costs Coyotes in OT loss to Ducks

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Ondrej Kase scored at 4:24 of overtime, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Friday night.

Kase was stopped by Mike Smith, but the goaltender bobbled the puck and Kase swiped it from him in the crease and swept it into the open net, handing the Coyotes their ninth straight loss.

Mike Smith with a turnover of the year candidate in overtime pic.twitter.com/dOJW7HlUqA

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 7, 2017

Joseph Cramarossa and Chris Wagner scored for Anaheim, and John Gibson stopped 21 shots. The Ducks have won three in a row and four of five.

Martin Hanzal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Arizona, and Smith finished with 32 stops.

Ekman-Larsson tied it at 2 with a power-play goal 3:12 into the third period. After a goalmouth scramble drew Gibson out of the net, Ekman-Larsson caught a rebound in the crease and swept it into the open net, past a diving Ducks defenseman.

The Ducks had grabbed a 2-1 lead on Wagner’s third of the season at 16:05 of the second. Logan Shaw won a faceoff and Wagner banked the puck off Smith’s pad through a tight opening on the near side.

Anaheim forward Corey Perry nearly ended his 10-game scoreless drought in the first period but his shot at 6:35 went off the stick of Cramarossa. Hanzal responded just 1:19 into the second period when he tipped in a feed by Anthony Duclair.

NOTES: Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf sat out his second straight game with a lower-body injury. … Coyotes F Jordan Martinook left after the second period with an upper-body injury. … Arizona is still waiting on visa paperwork to go through for Alexander Burmistrov. The Coyotes won a waiver claim on him on Monday, but the former Winnipeg center from Russia has been stuck in Canada.

UP NEXT

Coyotes: Finish a back-to-back with the New York Islanders on Saturday at home.

Ducks: Host the Wild and former Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau on Sunday night.