Carolina tops Coyotes
GLENDALE — Sebastian Aho scored his 36th goal midway through the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes snapped a two-game skid with a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.
Nino Niederreiter, Max Domi, Vincent Trocheck and Jesper Fast also scored for the Hurricanes, who weathered an Arizona comeback try and strengthened their hold on first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina has 106 points, two more than the second-place New York Rangers, and has two more regulation wins, the first tiebreaker. The Hurricanes have five games remaining, and the Rangers six. The teams meet in New York on April 26.
Nick Ritchie, Loui Eriksson and Alex Galchenyuk scored in the second period for the Coyotes. Arizona trailed 3-0 and 4-1 before closing within 4-3 when Eriksson and Galchenyuk scored in the final four minutes of the period.
Antti Raanti had 23 saves for the Hurricanes and Karel Vejmelka had 46 for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes, who have lost seven in a row and 14 of 15, had not scored as many as three goals in regulation since a 5-2 victory over San Jose on March 30. In that
game, leading scorer Clayton Keller suffered a season-ending broken leg.
Trochek scored from in front at 4:01 of the first period when he redirected a cross-ice pass from Brady Skjei that hit the left post and caromed in for his 20th goal.
Tony DeAngelo hit a post a minute later, and Vejmelka stopped Aho’s point-blank backhander in the final six minutes of the period to keep it 1-0.
Fast gave the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead at 1:47 of the second period when he skated in on the left side, kept control the puck as traffic cleared, and flipped a wrist shot in off the far post.
Domi’s 100th career goal made it 3-0 three minutes later as he knocked in a rebound off Vejmelka. A former Coyotes player, Domi had 39 goals in 222 games for Arizona.
Ritchie broke the shutout bid on a slap shot from the slot that got over Raanta’s glove after a feed from
player ever to score 30 in his first two playoff games.
Klay Thompson added 21 points, while Curry shot 12 for 17 with five 3s as Denver again had no answer defensively for all of the Warriors’ dangerous perimeter threats.
The series shifts to Denver for Game 3 on Thursday night.
The Warriors are rolling with the backing of a raucous home crowd, winning their seventh in a row overall after a five-game winning streak to close the regular season.
Golden State used runs of 16-0 and 23-4 late in the second quarter to erase a 43-31 deficit and take a 57-51 lead at the break. On one particularly dazzling sequence, Draymond Green bounced a pass to Poole who threw it behind his back to Thompson for a layup that made it 54-47. Green’s defense flustered Jokic again.
Austin Rivers grabbed at his left hip and went down hard after getting hurt on a drive then Thompson hit a jumper on the other end in the 5-on-4 advantage before Rivers exited with 10:04 left in the second quarter. He returned with 46.7 seconds to go in the half.
The Nuggets went ahead 43-31 on Monte Morris’ layup at the 7:25 mark of the second quarter and the Warriors answered with 16 straight points. The Chase Center crowd went crazy on Poole’s 3 with 3:38 remaining.
Curry entered for the first time at the 6:32 mark of the first to a roaring ovation and immediately hit a jumper. With 16 first-half points he became the 27th player in NBA history to score 3,000 career postseason points.
He showed a full range of moves including driving to the basket with a fervor and making a 3-pointer while falling to the ground.
Denver took a 7-0 lead 90 seconds into the game as Jokic made four quick free throws. But the teams combined to start 6 for 21 with three field goals apiece – and the Warriors were 1 for 7 on 3s.
Nuggets: Jokic shot 9 for 20 and has missed all eight of his 3-point tries in two games . ... Denver had intended to inquire to the NBA about DeMarcus Cousins’ backto-back technicals in Game 1 that led to his ejection with 10:28 left in the game, though coach Michael Malone wouldn’t provide details about whether the Nuggets had indeed spoken to the league and
said he would keep any such discussions private. Cousins scored five straight points during one second-quarter sequence . ... Denver committed costly turnovers once more, 18 of them leading to 25 Warriors points – something Malone stressed couldn’t happen.
Warriors: Curry, Poole and Thompson combined to go 31 for 52 from the floor with 13 3s . ... While
the Warriors held a 41-35 rebounding advantage in the series opener, Denver led 47-35 on Monday . ... Golden State is 17-4 in Game 2 of the playoffs dating to the 2015 title run when the franchise captured its first championship in 40 years. ... The Warriors planned to take Tuesday off then practice in San Francisco on Wednesday before flying to Denver.