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Selanne scores twice as Ducks edge Coyotes

Mar 23, 2008 - 6:33 AM By Jonathan Dalton PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- No Jean-Sebastien Giguere, no problem for the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.

Teemu Selanne scored a pair of milestone goals and rookie Jonas Hiller made 30 saves to lead the Ducks to a 2-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.

Todd Bertuzzi set up both goals for Anaheim (43-26-8), which improved to 16-3-1 in its last 20 games to solidify its hold on fourth place in the Western Conference. The Ducks trail the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks (45-21-9), who were idle, by five points.

All-Star defenseman Ed Jovanovski scored the lone goal for Phoenix (36-34-6), which moved one step closer to being eliminated from postseason contention. The Coyotes are in 11th place and trail the eighth-place Colorado Avalanche (39-31-6) by six points with six games to play.

"Every loss hurts just as much now," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said.

Sidelined by back spasms, Giguere also did not play in Friday's 2-1 loss to the Sharks after aggravating the injury during pregame warmups. Hiller made a season-high 41 saves in that contest.

"You've always got to be ready when the game starts, no matter what has happened," said Hiller, who was sporting a bandage on his forehead from a hard shot to the mask on Friday night. "Clearly, we didn't play out best game tonight, but good teams win the games when you don't play your best."

On Saturday, the Ducks were playing without All-Star Ryan Getzlaf (upper body injury) and captain Chris Pronger (suspension).

"That's life in the league," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "You have to win when you have people out and other people have to move to the forefront."

Selanne snapped a 1-1 deadlock with 9:20 remaining in the third period when he accepted a feed from Doug Weight in the left faceoff circle and fired a wrist shot past former teammate Ilya Bryzgalov for his 10th goal of the season. Selanne's 550th career goal moved him past Hall of Famer Ron Francis into 23rd place on the all-time list.

"I don't even think about it," Selanne said. "I'm not a numbers guy. It's something that when I'm done and sit down to show my kids what I did in the league, that's when it will hit me."

The 37-year-old Selanne opened the scoring just 6:11 into the first period, skating in on a breakaway and wristing the puck past Bryzgalov.

Jovanovski leveled the contest at 3:26 of the third period, sending a sharp wrist shot between Hiller's pads for his 12th tally.

Phoenix finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while Anaheim went 1-for-6 - with five of its opportunities coming in the third period.

"Special teams is huge, and for us to give them that many opportunities in the third period, that hurt," Doan said. "They have a good power play that capitalized, and our power play needed to find another one."

Anaheim, which was held without a shot in the third period in Friday's loss, managed just nine over the first two sessions against Bryzgalov.

"Our guys played their hearts out and we got beat, 2-1," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We had a lot of chances and I was really impressed by the commitment the players made to the defensive side of the puck."