By Associated Press
ANAHEIM – Niklas Hagman scored two goals, Jonas Hiller made 19 saves and the Anaheim Ducks earned their second win in six games under new coach Bruce Boudreau, 4-1 over the Coyotes on Wednesday night at the Honda Center.

Rod Pelley scored in his Ducks debut and Kyle Palmieri added his first goal of the season for Anaheim, which climbed out of last place in the overall NHL standings.

Martin Hanzal scored a goal and Mike Smith stopped 24 shots for the Coyotes (15-12-3), who have lost three straight games and five of their past seven. Phoenix had won four in a row against Anaheim (9-16-5), but Smith lost in regulation to the Ducks for the first time in his NHL career.

Corey Perry had two assists and the Ducks got a major boost from the return of defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, who missed the past 13 games with a broken finger on his right hand. Visnovsky had an assist on Pelley's goal and immediately ran the point on Anaheim's power play while racking up seven shots.

The Coyotes began a stretch of three games in four nights with a flat effort, although their power play scored for just the second time in 10 games.

Late in the first period, Pelley beat Smith on a breakaway for his first goal with the Ducks, who acquired him from New Jersey on Monday in a four-player trade. Pelley, best known as a rugged penalty-killer and depth forward, hadn't scored an NHL goal since last Jan. 17.

Anaheim went up 2-0 early in the second period when Hagman corralled a rebound of Perry's shot and scored the second goal of his 12-game stint with the Ducks, who claimed the Finnish veteran off waivers from Calgary last month.

Hanzal trimmed the Ducks' lead when he got a pass from Ray Whitney and beat Hiller for his fifth goal.

Photo by Getty Images.

But Hagman put the Ducks up 3-1 with 64 seconds left in the second period after an exceptional pass from Perry (see KEY MOMENT below).

"To give up that one late in the second period, that’s a big goal for us," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "We felt like we carried some of the momentum from the second period (and) had some decent chances, and to give up that late goal in the second period - we then have a long way back in third... In the third period, I thought we chased the game. We probably looked like a lot of other teams chasing the game. It was messy and it was not pretty hockey."

Palmieri redirected Bobby Ryan's shot in front at 3:30 of the third period for his first goal since the high-scoring minor leaguer's recall from the AHL last week.

Perry tried mightily to get a third goal for Hagman, but Smith robbed the Finnish forward on two good chances late.

► EDITOR'S NOTE: Dave Vest of phoenixcoyotes.com edited this story and compiled this recap.

Ducks forward Niklas Hagman backhanded a pass from teammate Corey Perry past Coyotes goalie Mike Smith at 18:56 of the second period for his second goal of the game to cap a nice give-and-go exchange.

The goal gave Anaheim a two-goal cushion heading into the second intermission and Phoenix couldn't recover.

"It’s nice to see (Hagman score)," Ducks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "If we can get him back to scoring the way he used to, then it sure adds a dynamic that we haven’t had for awhile. He could have had four or five. Corey was putting them on his tape in the third period. But two is good."

► Click here to watch the KEY MOMENT.

Yandle

• Defenseman Keith Yandle led the team in ice time (24:04) and shots on goal (four). He also assisted on Martin Hanzal's goal to extend his point streak vs. Anaheim to eight games.

• The Coyotes have lost three consecutive games (in regulation). That hasn't happened since Feb. 12, 2010 – March 2, 2010 (Olympic break).

• Center Martin Hanzal scored a goal and won 10 of 17 faceoffs.

• Forward Paul Bissonnette played for the first time since Nov. 25. Bissonnette logged 9:43 of ice time and delivered one hit in his 99th NHL game.

• The Coyotes scratched Cal O'Reilly and Kyle Turris.

• The Coyotes' next game is Thursday vs. Edmonton at Jobing.com Arena. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. (Arizona time). The game can be seen on Fox Sports Arizona and can be heard on XTRA Sports 910 (AM).

"I think Shane (Doan) summed it pretty well, saying we lacked emotion on an everyday basis, every shift. I think that is a big part of it...Obviously, you go through times in the season when it is harder to win games than other times, but I think right now we are just not giving ourselves much chance to win." "We got one (power-play goal) tonight. It’s starting to come around. We have to be better overall though. Getting one goal a game isn’t going to cut it. We are putting a lot of pressure on our goalies and we’ve got to be better than that." "The whole team played really well. I managed to get a couple of goals. I had chances to do more too, but it was good that we didn’t need more than those tonight." Smith Doan Hagman