Hill shuts out Vegas for needed victory
A sign in the crowd held up by empty seats at Gila River Arena displayed two words colored red: "We Believe."
The Arizona Coyotes, when they absolutely had to on Friday night, played like a team that indeed does believe, even if the odds are long that they can end up in fourth place by season's end and grab the last NHL West Division playoff spot. They beat the divisionleading Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 and looked good doing it.
Adin Hill was locked in from the start as goalie, stopping 25 shots in his second shutout of the season and third of his career, and the Coyotes, in a way they weren't able to in consecutive losses at San Jose earlier this week, limited the Golden Knight's chances with solid coverage all over the ice.
"Guys all dug in, it was a good team effort. (Hill) gave us a game, nice to see him get a start and I thought he was really solid," Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. "I thought we worked hard. It was a little anti-climactic, a nice win but you wish things were a little bit different the last couple of weeks."
With Hill holding it down in net and defensemen and forwards frustrating Vegas, goals from John Hayden, Michael Bunting and Christian Fischer were plenty enough for the Coyotes' third win in the past 12 games.
"We have no quit in this locker room. We know we have five games coming up and we've got to win them all," Bunting said. "So guys believe in there, and we have a great group of guys to do it."
The Coyotes (22-24-5) earned just their second win in seven meetings with Vegas this season, but this one was important. Time is running out on them with five games left in the regular season, but they moved to three points behind the St. Louis Blues for fourth place and the playoffs, with St. Louis idle on Friday.
The Blues have three games in hand, but the Coyotes took a step in the right direction instead of another one closer to mathematical elimination.
The Golden Knights couldn't solve Hill, despite some good looks including Mark Stone's tap-in attempt that tapped the post in the second period.
But Hill was up to the task even on the quality shots on goal. His night got off to a good start with back-to-back saves on point-blank shots from the Golden Knights' William Karlsson early in the game.
At one point, after taking a bump from a Golden Knights player that caused a stoppage in play in the second period, Hill looked like he was smiling through his goalie mask.
"I felt pretty good the full game. I don’t know if there was one specific moment, but our guys did a great job in front of me of keeping shots to the outside, boxing guys out," Hill said. "They weren’t tipping any pucks. It was a great game by us defensively.”
The Coyotes won 57% of faceoffs in the game, and out-hit Vegas 46-21.
Hayden scored his second goal of the season when a loose puck after a Jason Demers shot came out to him, and he got a shot past Vegas goalie Robin Lehner at 9:13 of the first period. Derick Brassard, who won six of seven faceoffs, got an assist in his 900th career NHL game.
After a scoreless second period, Bunting, the Coyotes' breakout performer of the season with his offensive production in limited games since coming up from AHL Tucson, was waiting for the rebound of a saved Nick Schmaltz shot and scored his ninth goal in 16 games this season early in the third.
Schmaltz got an assist in his 300th career NHL game.
The Coyotes tacked on an empty-net goal from Fischer, who couldn't get off a clean shot on a breakaway earlier in the game, with 2:37 to play.