Penalty kill struggles again in Coyotes’ defeat vs. Wild
One of the Arizona Coyotes’ strengths earlier in the season had been their penalty kill. But it’s an issue now after Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Wild.
The Wild scored two goals in three power plays, and came away with a 5-2 win over the Coyotes to improve to 6-1 against Arizona this season. The Coyotes got Christian Fischer’s first goal of the season and a goal from defenseman Alex Goligoski, but their penalty kill is just 1 for its last 7 with at least one power play goal allowed in four straight games.
The Coyotes (20-21-5) have lost six of their last seven games. While still holding fourth place and a playoff spot, they have played three more games than the fifth place St. Louis Blues, who trail Arizona by a single point.
The Coyotes faced two penalty kills less than a minute apart in the first period. The Wild ended the first penalty kill with rookie Kirill Kaprizov’s team-leading 18th goal of the season, then another penalty put the Coyotes at a disadvantage again soon after.
Arizona kept the Wild out of the net on the second one, and that was important at the time, given that the Wild had already registered 14 power play goals in its last 10 games.
Fischer was in the perfect spot to intercept an attempted pass from Minnesota’s Ryan Suter, and deposit a wide open look into the net with 5:32 left in the first. That tied the game, but the Wild scored twice in the second period and could have had more goals.
Minnesota took a 2-1 lead early in the second period on Jordan Greenway’s third goal of the season against the Coyotes. Then, on the power play again midway through the second, Marcus Johansson put in the rebound off a Matt Dumba shot to make it 3-1.
Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said depth is an issue. The Coyotes were without versatile forward/penalty kill
unit member Tyler Pitlick, who could miss several games with a lower body injury, and there are a number of inexperienced players asked to contribute.
“Our PK has really let us down, which has been has been a staple here. Depth and stuff, there’s a lot to it. New people, there’s a lot of different things to that,” Tocchet said.
Seconds after Johansson’s goal, the Wild appeared to have a fourth goal. But a review for interference against the goalie went in the Coyotes’ favor, with the goal overturned due to incidental contact by Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno against Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper.
The official ruling was that Foligno impaired Kuemper’s ability “to play his position in the crease prior to the puck entering the net.”
The Coyotes got Goligoski’s goal only 75 seconds into the third period. But Kevin Fiala made it 4-2 a few minutes later, and an empty-net goal ended the scoring.