Wild hand Coyotes 7th straight home defeat
The Arizona Coyotes looked more like themselves with an exciting comeback, but the Minnesota Wild shut that down with four unanswered goals.
It was an eventful night that saw the Coyotes successful on two of three challenges, while building an exciting third period lead with two goals in seven seconds. But the Wild quickly tied the Coyotes and dashed all hopes with two empty-net goals in the final two minutes to hand the Coyotes a 5-2 loss at Mullett Arena on Thursday.
“I don’t think we played a bad game,” head coach André Tourigny said. “It was a good game, we played well, we had grade A chances and their goalie made a really good save on grade A chance. We scored on our power play and they scored on our penalty kill and two turnovers in the third cost us our lead.”
The Coyotes (25-33-5) haven’t won a game at home since Jan. 22, suffering seven consecutive losses.
Lineup affected by trade deadline
The Coyotes’ lineup reflected the trade deadline approaching on Friday at 1 p.m. MT. Defenseman Troy Stecher was traded earlier on Thursday to the Edmonton Oilers for draft picks.
Forward Jason Zucker and defenseman Matt Dumba were both held out for trade-related reasons. It marked the second game missed for Zucker who was absent from Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Both have contributed offensively to the Coyotes in their first season in Arizona. Zucker had 25 points over 51 games, including four power-play goals. Dumba had four goals, 10 points, 150 hits, and 84 blocks in 58 appearances this season.
Defenseman Patrik Koch was recalled from the Tucson Roadrunners in the American Hockey League and was the extra defenseman.
Coyotes forward Nick Bjugstad was absent due to family reasons.
Video reviews come in handy
The Coyotes were helped in the second by two video review that went in their favor.
Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka made a split pad save on Matt Boldy’s attempt at 1:42, but after some wrestling at the net, the puck slid in. After a review, it was waived off after it was seen that Boldy batted the puck into the net.
Later in the period, Jacob Lucchini nearly grabbed a 2-0 lead, but his goal was called off after it was shown that he was in an off-side position prior to his goal.
The Wild power play came through in the second. Sean Durzi went in for tripping during the Boldy scoring attempt and nine seconds later, Kirill Kaprizov
scored for a 1-0 lead at 1:51 in the second. The Coyotes have given eight goals on the power play in the last four games.
Everyone gets to the net
After being a thorn in the side of the Coyotes with 19 saves in the first two periods, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury went down quickly with two goals in under two minutes in the third.
On an early power play, Durzi’s shot rebounded off the net and was tipped by Barrett Hayton over to Clayton Keller, who tied the game 1-1 at 1:21.
Shortly after Keller’s goal, Jack McBain won the faceoff, making way for Michael Carcone getting to the net for a 2-1 lead.
Carcone has a goal in three of his last
four games and continues to add to his career-best goal output in a single season (18).
The Wild scored the third goal in 39 seconds with Zach Bogosian’s equalizer at 2:00. The Coyotes challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but it was determined a good goal.
“It was a key moment so we challenged and I think it could have gone either way,” Tourigny said.
Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal at 7:16 stymied hopes of a comeback with a 3-2 lead, leading to a strong push from the Wild in the final two minutes with Vejmelka pulled for an extra attacker.
The Coyotes will close the homestand with the Detroit Red Wings at 7p.m., Friday, hours after the trade deadline.