Coyotes’ rally falls short in 4-2 loss to Avalanche
The Arizona Coyotes seemingly did everything they could to limit the potent Colorado Avalanche offense. They and 22-year-old goalie Ivan Prosvetov, in his first NHL start, held the league’s highest-scoring team to three goals plus an empty-netter on 20 shots.
On offense, the Coyotes battled back with two third-period goals and gave themselves a chance to get at least a point in the standings. But they came up short in a 4-2 loss to the Avalanche Monday night in the second of back-to-back games.
Michael Bunting scored his sixth goal in only eight games played this season, and Johan Larsson followed with his seventh of the season. Prosvetov, who’d appeared in relief in two previous games this season and learned only Sunday night that he’d start, stopped 16 shots.
The Coyotes’ losing streak reached a season-high four games. And while they still are just a point behind the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot, the Blues — whose game in Minnesota was rescheduled to May 12 following another controversial police shooting in the Twin Cities area — have played two fewer games.
With 13 games to go in the regular season and a vote of confidence from general manager Bill Armstrong, who kept the current roster intact in choosing not to make a trade before Monday’s noon deadline, the Coyotes (1919-5) are certainly alive for the postseason.
But Monday’s loss made there a little more difficult.
The Coyotes finished 2-5-1 against the Avalanche this regular season, outscored 26-13 in the eight games between them.
“We played good. We deserved better,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. “I liked our battle.”
The action was delayed for several minutes at 11:30 of the first period after some activity in front of the Avalanche net resulted in a no-goal call, then was reviewed and overturned. The ruling was that the puck completely crossed the goal line, though replays didn’t appear conclusive.
The Avalanche subsequently challenged for goaltender interference, and after another video review it was
getting determined that Arizona’s Larsson interfered with Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer by pushing his pad, which caused the puck to enter the net.
The goal was disallowed.
The Coyotes had a major mountain to climb down three goals after two periods to the NHL’s best team at present. They almost did, as Bunting scored when he deflected Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot on a power play.
The Coyotes made it 3-2 on Larsson’s goal, with Dryden Hunt assisting. Hunt was effective again with his work in both the offensive and neutral zones.
“Fairly young guy trying to push the pace, same thing with ‘Bunts,’” Tocchet said of Hunt. “We need those guys in the lineup. I’m going to keep them in the lineup. We need guys to push the pace and they’ve been doing that for us.”
Forward Clayton Keller, dropped to the fourth line with only two points in the first eight games of the road trip, doesn’t typically get into scraps with opponents. But there was Keller, in the closing seconds of the game, sticking up for Ekman-Larsson by going after the much bigger Mikko Rantanen.
It was a moment that might have shown how important it was to the Coyotes to not lose anyone via trade, that they will try to make the playoffs with largely the same group of players that have been around on the main roster and taxi squad all season.
“It was nice to see the guys stepping up for each other,” said Hjalmarsson, who came off injured reserve for his first game since March 22 and missed 10 games. “That’s going to mean something going down the stretch here to know that we’ve got each other’s back and everybody’s out there to play hard and do their best.”
Rantanen scored two Colorado goals, with one goal and an assist for Nathan MacKinnon.
Coming soon
More fans,
River Arena.
The Coyotes on Monday announced they will increase seating capacity at their home ice to approximately 50% for the club’s remaining regular season home games in April and May, beginning with their next home game on Saturdayagainst the St. Louis Blues. Due to NHL protocols regarding seating, the Coyotes will cap attendance at 7,900 for all home games.
potentially,
inside
Gila