Coyotes win in OT
NEW YORK — The Arizona Coyotes had every reason to feel the deck was stacked against them. They had lost four straight and trailed 3-0 in the second period against the New York Rangers.
However, instead of accepting another loss, Arizona rallied back to tie the score and Derek Stepan scored with 32 seconds left
on the clock in overtime against his former team as the Coyotes beat the Rangers 4-3 Friday night.
“I’d be lying to you if I told you that didn’t feel good,” Stepan said of getting winner back on his former home ice.
Stepan fired a wrist shot off the crossbar 4 1/2 minutes into the extra period as the Coyotes beat the Rangers for the first time in 10 meetings. Nick Schmaltz picked up his 100th career NHL assist on the play.
Jordan Oesterle, Josh Archibald and Oliver EkmanLarsson also scored for Arizona, and Adin Hill stopped 27 shots.
Kevin Hayes had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad also scored to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead less than six minutes into the second. Henrik Lundqvist finished with 30 saves.
Oesterle got the Coyotes on the scoreboard at 10:42 of the middle period when his slap shot from the blue line deflected off Lundqvist’s arm. Schmaltz record his first of two assists on the play.
Stepan found Archibald cutting past the hashmarks with 6:49 left in the third to pull the Coyotes within one, and Ekman-Larsson fired a sharp-angled shot over Lundqvist’s glove to tie it 3:48 later.
Buchnevich opened the scoring when he hammered a one-timer at 4:01 of the first period. The Russian winger missed the previous 13 games with a broken thumb. Jimmy Vesey had an assist on the play to extend his point streak to three games.
Hayes tallied his eighth of the season with 3:34 left in the opening period. Mats Zuccarello delivered a wellplaced cross-ice pass to set up the goal. Hayes posted a multi-point game for the third consecutive contest, and has three goals and three assists in the that span.