Cardiac Coyotes end 11-game losing streak in dramatic fashion

PHILADELPHIA — The Coyotes adopted a tongue-in-cheek motto a few seasons ago to embrace their many on- and off-ice trials: Hockey the hard way.

That approach was in full flower when the Philadelphia Flyers scored twice in the final 53 seconds of regulation on Monday at Wells Fargo Center to erase a two-goal Coyotes lead.

“Here we go again,” forward Jordan Martinook was thinking at the end of regulation.

The Coyotes were staring at the longest losing streak to start a season in NHL history, and another agonizing defeat before defenseman Alex Goligoski buried a feed from Clayton Keller with 14.4 seconds remaining in overtime to give them a 4-3 victory, their first win of the season.

“When you have been in as many one-goal games as we have and everything is kind of going against you and then that happened again…” Martinook said. “For the guys to go out in overtime and not let it bother them; go out and get the win is so huge. Now we’ve got that monkey off our back.”

Maybe coach Rick Tocchet just had to go back to his Philadelphia roots for the Coyotes to find their mojo. Maybe the presence of owner Andrew Barroway in his hometown gave the Coyotes a little extra juice. Maybe the players dug a little deeper with newly acquired Scott Wedgewood making his first start in goal, or maybe they were just tired of losing and listening to all those barbs from the NHL community.

Whatever the motivation, the Coyotes (1-10-1) played their strongest 59 minutes of the season.

Arizona held Philadelphia to three first-period shots, the fewest by a Coyotes opponent in a regulation period this season. They held the Flyers’ top line of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek in check until Couturier scored a power-play goal at 2:14 of the third period.

The Coyotes’ defensive zone coverage was superb most of the night, getting sticks in passing lanes, shutting down cycles before they produced scoring chances by winning puck battles, and weathering Philadelphia’s biggest pushes without cracking, as they had done in previous games this season.

“I think they executed the game plan,” Tocchet said. “We wanted to play a quick game, get the puck behind the defense of the Flyers and you could tell the guys were getting confidence because it was working.”

Wedgwood became the fourth goalie to start a game for the Coyotes in 12 games this season (the team has dressed six overall). He made 28 saves but was mostly untested until the final minute, other than a doorstep stop on Jordan Weal about midway through second period, and a big right-pad save on Taylor Leier off a bank off the end boards with 13:11 left in the third period.

“The first period, you get three shots and a two-goal lead, obviously, they eased me in there,” Wedgewood said. “I didn’t really have any nerves but that’s my second hockey game in 11 and a half months.”

Martinook got the Coyotes on the board first for the ninth time this season with his first goal of the season off a crossing feed from Niklas Hjalmarsson at 2:20 of the first period. Christian Dvorak widened the lead to 2-0 at 7:46 of the first off a feed from Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

After a scoreless second, Brendan Perlini scored his second goal in as many games at 1:34 of the third for a 3-0 cushion, before Couturier answered 40 seconds later, marking the 12th time this season the Coyotes have allowed an opponent to score within two minutes of scoring themselves.

Weal and Couturier put lumps in the collective throats of Coyotes fans when they scored with 53 and 16 seconds left in regulation, respectively. When the Coyotes couldn’t cash in on an overtime power play, things looked grim, but Keller, the remarkable rookie found Goligoski on the right wing to extend his point streak to six games (nine points) and end the Coyotes’ dubious streak at 11 straight losses.

“For people who haven’t really seen much of us, we’ve been playing like that for a while now,” Goligoski said. “It’s just that it’s come down to these situations in end of games where it’s almost been bizarre.

“We’ve been playing good hockey. We just haven’t been getting results. It’s nice getting results.”

The win was especially sweet for Tocchet, who reconnected with a host of old friends after the game in the city where his playing career started and ended, but Tocchet wasn’t about to make this win about him.

“It’s more for the guys,” Tocchet said. “Getting the win is big. We’ll go over some of the mistakes later in the last couple minutes, but I thought for the most part the guys deserved this win.”

Coyotes at Red Wings
When: 4:30 p.m., Tuesday
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
TV: FOX Sports Arizona
Radio: ESPN 620 AM
Records: Coyotes — 1-10-1. Red Wings — 5-6-1.

Injury report: Coyotes — D Jakob Chychrun (knee) is out indefinitely. G Antti Raanta (lower body) and D Niklas Hjalmarsson (upper body) are day-to-day. Red Wings — D Danny DeKeyser (lower body) is day-to-day.

Red Wings scouting report: The Red Wings ended a six-game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Saturday. Four of Detroit’s losses during its streak were by one goal. … D Mike Green leads the Wings with 11 points (10 assists).

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