Raanta, Keller spark Coyotes’ first home win of season

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Owner Andy Barroway broke out the sport coat with the Coyotes logos all over the lining. Forward Clayton Keller broke out his new shootout move, and goalie Antti Raanta broke out a play that coach Rick Tocchet hopes he never witnesses again.

It was all good for one night on Saturday at Gila River Arena.

Keller scored in regulation and the shootout, Derek Stepan added a shootout goal and Raanta made 36 saves to lead the Coyotes to their first home win of the season, a 2-1 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The game was a dramatic departure from a Thursday loss to Buffalo in which the Coyotes looked downright charitable with the amount of odd-man rushes they allowed the Sabres. Carolina couldn’t get much going until the third period.

“The first probably four or five minutes we were kind of junk but we settled in and I thought we slowed our game down a little bit in the D-zone and we weren’t running around as much,” said forward Brad Richardson, who made a terrific play to steal the puck from Justin Faulk in the high slot and slip a backhand pass under Jaccob Slavin’s stick to Keller for a backdoor tap-in and a 1-0 lead at 11:33 of the second period.

“I thought overall we played a pretty good game. We had a little hiccup in the third late and we stayed with it and didn’t panic.”

The hiccup came when Hurricanes defenseman Noah Hanifin kept a puck in at the blue line and got it to forward Sebastian Aho on the left wing. Aho slid a pass across the slot to center Jordan Staal, who tucked it in the far side of the net at 17:35 of the third period to force overtime and take the wind out of the arena.

Carolina controlled much of overtime, but Raanta stopped Staal on a pair of attempts early and he ranged far out of his net to push a puck away from Carolina forward Derek Ryan at 1:51.

“A little scary there in overtime when he went for a journey,” Richardson said, laughing. “I was shocked. I’m thinking ‘what the heck is he doing?'”

Raanta’s left shoulder collided with Ryan, he spun around and he appeared to be shaken up on the play, forcing Coyotes head athletic trainer Dave Zenobi onto the ice.

“That was a tough one,” Tocchet said. “The last thing you want to do is have a concussion or something. When he got up and then Z, our head trainer went out there, he kind of smiled and I knew we were OK, but we were all on the bench going, ‘oh, no, here we go.'”

Raanta finished OT and he helped finish off the Hurricanes in the shootout when he stopped two of three shots while Keller and Stepan converted on pretty moves.

Tocchet said the plan all along was to send Keller out first in the shootout.

“The fans loved it,” Tocchet said. “If I don’t put him out there first they’ll probably kill me.”

Keller said he practiced the shootout move in practice this week with limited success. That didn’t stop the rookie goals and points leader from testing it out in his first NHL shootout.

“It was a good to see it work there,” said Keller, who deked to his forehand after several fakes in tight on goalie Scott Darling. “Whatever you go with, you’ve got to be committed to it. I’m always going to go with my thought and if I believe in it, hopefully good things will happen.”

The win produced a combination of rejoicing and relief for Raanta who saw a second shutout bid this season end late in the third period, but still posted his first win as a Coyote and his first win in six career shootouts.

“I felt really good,” Raanta said. “I was dialed in. I felt like I was moving really good today and I was all the time in the right place and following the puck.”

Raanta said his shoulder went numb for a few minutes after the collision with Ryan, but he shook that off and he shrugged off an extended night of play just three days into his return to the lineup.

“When you win a game you don’t feel anything,” he said, smiling. “You just feel great.”

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