Coyotes give up 5 unanswered goals in loss
Arizona’s 9-game points streak come to an end
While magic has followed the Arizona Coyotes recently, but the effects wore off Wednesday night at Mullett Arena against the Calgary Flames.
Arizona’s 6-3 loss marked the end to a stunning run of nine consecutive games with a point.
The Coyotes showed signs of the recent fight that has helped drive the team during its hot streak, but it ultimately came down to the third period, in which the Flames rallied with three goals.
The Flames posted 51 shots on goal, forcing Karel Vejmelka to be on a swivel the entire game. Vejmelka made 45 saves, while the Coyotes strung together 14 shots on goal.
“I think they were desperate, faster, heavier. They played a better game than us.” Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny said. “Sometimes results hide the truth. We cannot focus on the end result, we are capable of being better than we are lately.”
The Coyotes (20-29-9) won’t play again until Sunday against the Nashville Predators at Mullett Arena.
Lighting the lamp
Despite only posting six shots in the second period, the Coyotes scored three goals, with one an own goal by Flames defenseman Chris Tanev.
The Flames controlled the pace in the first period, but the Coyotes were awarded a fresh start 42 seconds into the following period when Mikael Backlund was called for tripping. Nick Schmaltz finished off a cross-seam pass from Clayton Keller for a 1-1 score at 1:11.
Keller nearly had a goal of his own after he served his tripping penalty and earned a breakaway opportunity right out of the box, but he went wide. A blunder from Tanev at the net was what gave Keller his 24th goal when the puck deflected off him and Tanev knocked it in at 9:31.
Tyler Toffoli’s miss off the post in the Coyotes zone trickled over to Matias Maccelli. Maccelli, a pass-first player, did
the unusual and launched a shot while on the odd man rush for a 3-1 lead.
“I wanted to pass that, but the D gave me no choice, so I just pretty much closed my eyes and fired the puck,” Maccelli said.
Coming undone
Vejmelka had a rough start to the third period when he was knocked down by both Coyotes defenseman J.J. Moser and Flames forward Dillon Dube at the net in the first 18 seconds. The collision left him on the ice for a good amount of time as the trainer assessed him and eventually cleared him to play.
“He saved us early in the game,” Tourigny said. “After that, he’s human and (the shots) were coming from a little bit of everywhere. I think Calgary was better. It’s been a theme for us that our goalie is saving us a lot and hide a few things we were not good enough at. At some point, you cannot make miracle over miracle.”
His time didn’t get any easier from there as the Flames pressed harder and earned a power play that ended with Jakob Pelletier deflecting Noah Hanifin’s shot from the point for the 4-3 lead. Walker Duehr responded 25 seconds later with a backhander.
Mikael Backlund scored Calgary’s third straight goal in the period and the fifth unanswered goal in the game on a cross-seam pass in front of the net by Pelletier.
Not enough defensemen
Jakob Chychrun was scratched for the sixth consecutive game for trade-related reasons. Chychrun did skate with the team in Tuesday’s practice, something that wasn’t happening before. Wednesday’s trade with the Vegas Golden Knights that sent a fifth-round choice and Shea Weber’s contract to the Coyotes for defenseman Dysin Mayo could be a sign of another trade to come.
With just seven defensemen in the game, the Coyotes took another blow to the depth when Josh Brown exited during the game with an upper body injury. With Brown gone for most of the game, the Coyotes were left without one of their top penalty killers and were hurt by the Flames power play. The Flames scored three goals off five opportunities.