SALT LAKE CITY — For the second night in a row, the Ducks battled into the third period only to come up short of a win.

Dylan Guenther broke a tie on a power play at 7:03 of the third and the Utah Hockey Club beat the Ducks, 3-2, on Wednesday night. Guenther beat goaltender Ville Husso with a one-timer from the left side off a feed from defenseman Mikhail Sergachev for his career-best 24 goal this season.

Jack McBain and Alexander Kerfoot also scored for Utah (29-25-11, 69 points), which has won six of its past nine games and moved within two points of the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference. Karel Vejmelka made 19 saves.

Alex Killorn and Mason McTavish scored for the Ducks, and Husso – who was acquired in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 24 and recalled from the AHL’s San Diego Gulls on Sunday – stopped 36 shots in his Ducks debut.

“I think we did a pretty good job,” Husso told NHL.com. “I’ve been here a short time, but it’s been nice to see everybody battling and playing for each other. And I think when you do that, I think that’s when the good results come.”

The Ducks (28-30-7, 63 points) are eight points out of a playoff spot after going 1-4-0 in their past five games.

“I thought we played hard,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin told NHL.com. “It’s kind of a rough turnaround. We got in wicked late this morning, and I thought we battled. And obviously Utah, they’ve got a good team. They’ve got a lot of skilled players, and I thought they made the sacrifice they needed to make to win the game.”

Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev saved a goal early in the second period, but later committed back-to-back minor penalties. The Ducks capitalized on the second when McTavish scored on a one-timer from the right circle to tie it 2-2 at 3:22 of the third period.

Utah then went on a power play and the top unit kept the puck in the Ducks’ zone for an extended stretch before Guenther scored what proved to be the game-winner.

McBain scored on a deflection to give Utah a 1-0 lead at 11:03 of the first period.

Sergachev made the goal-saving play when he kicked aside a close-in try by Ryan Strome after he had beaten Vejmelka on a drive to the net at 5:48 of the second period.

Utah pinned the Ducks in their own zone before Guenther centered a pass from off the wall to Kerfoot cutting to the net, and he slipped the puck past Husso from close range to extend the lead to 2-0 at 14:31 of the second.

Sergachev earned his 300th NHL point with an assist on the play.

The Ducks began their comeback 62 seconds later. Killorn hopped off the bench and received a pass from Leo Carlsson before squeezing a wrist shot between Vejmelka’s blocker and left hip with a wrist shot from the left circle to make it 2-1 at 15:53.

The Ducks were coming off a 7-4 home loss to the league-leading Washington Capitals on Tuesday night – a game that tied twice in the third period before the Capitals scored three goals in the final 6:35 to secure a victory.

Utah, which outshot the Ducks 39-21, had lost two straight games in extra time, falling 4-3 in overtime at Chicago on Friday night and 4-3 in a shootout at home against Toronto on Monday night.

UP NEXT

The Ducks host Nashville on Friday at 7 p.m. PT.

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