Coyotes blow 2-goal lead in loss on road
Tyler Pitlick scored his first goal as a Coyote and Nick Schmaltz scored his first goal of the season, but the Arizona Coyotes couldn’t hold a two-goal lead and gave up four unanswered goals to the Vegas Golden Knights in Monday night’s 4-2 loss.
A late second-period goal for Max Pacioretty gave the host Golden Knights their first, and they scored twice early in the third period to seize the momentum.
Reilly Smith and Chandler Stephenson scored game-tying and go-ahead goals, with Stephenson redirecting Zach Whitecloud’s errant shot for a 3-2 lead at the 8:12 mark.
“Three goals were unlucky, off people’s backs and stuff,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought we played a good game. There were some presses there that Vegas did and we didn’t handle that well a couple of things. But I thought for the most part, listen, that’s a heavy team over there. We can learn from that. We’ve got to start slinging pucks to the net and getting those type of goals.”
Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 of 27 shots he faced, but the Coyotes (1-1-1) couldn’t score for 30 minutes between the second and third periods.
“We knew they were going to come with a push. We had some looks at the end, but couldn’t find the back of the net. But it was a pretty good game overall,” Schmaltz said. “We’ve just got to learn how to close those games.”
Despite the absence of captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who is expected to miss at least three to four weeks with a lower body injury, the Coyotes played well early. Kyle Capobianco joined the lineup with the defensemen in place of Ekman-Larsson and played in his first NHL game since February of last year.
“I thought our ‘D’ did a pretty good job of filling that void and taking on those minutes,” Schmaltz said. “Miss ‘O’ back there, he’s a heck of a player, but that stuff happens, players get hurt. Guys got to step up. Good opportunity for some guys to step in and play big minutes.”
Capobianco made a couple of mistakes in trying to handle the puck, which Tocchet chalked up to rust.
“Kyle, we’re trying to see where we’re at with him. He hasn’t played in a while,”
Tocchet said. “We’ve got to see what we’ve got. He’s got to have confidence with the puck.”
Schmaltz scored on a wrist shot with the Coyotes on a power play midway through the second period, giving Arizona a 2-0 lead.