Scoring woes continue as Wild hand Coyotes second straight loss
Mar 17, 2018, 10:20 PM
Minnesota Wild right wing Mikael Granlund (64) gets off a shot between Arizona Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (23) and defenseman Jason Demers (55) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, March 17, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet viewed the past two games as significant tests because they came against the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild, two teams among the top 10 in the NHL standings.
The Coyotes held up well in most areas — most areas except the finish.
Marcus Foligno scored off a Jakob Chychrun turnover at 10:51 of the third period and Eric Staal added an empty-netter to give the Wild a 3-1 win at Gila River Arena on Saturday. It was Minnesota’s first win against Arizona in three tries this season and was the Coyotes’ second straight loss after falling 3-2 to the Predators on Thursday.
The Coyotes fired 31 shots at former teammate Devan Dubnyk, but only slipped Clayton Keller’s breakaway goal past him.
“It was a good effort,” Tocchet said. “We’re getting some chances. I don’t think we’re getting enough net-front [presence]. That’s something over the summer we’ve got to start to find. We need people who can go to the net.
“I thought as much as we played well, the one negative was our net-front presence wasn’t there tonight.”
Arizona is 7-5-1 in its past 13 games. That is a testament to how well they have played defensively because Arizona has scored two goals or fewer in 10 of its past 13 games.
“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Keller said. “When that happens you’ve got to get pucks to the net. Goalies are good today.”
Tocchet clearly wants more than simply getting pucks to the net. The Coyotes need more traffic and they need more finishers so that their margin for error isn’t so slim.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games lately and it’s those one or two errors that end up costing us,” Chychrun said. “I think we are playing well though. We keep playing like this and we’ll keep finding ways to win and I think that’s the biggest thing for now, we’re playing good hockey. We’ve just got to try and stay positive and move forward with it.”
Nino Niederreiter gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:35 of the first period on a Wild power play. Antti Raanta stopped Matt Dumba’s slapshot from the top of the left face-off circle with his left pad, but Niederreiter was there to knock in the rebound.
Keller tied the game by going five-hole on a breakaway after Richard Panik blocked Ryan Murphy’s shot at the Arizona blue line. The goal was Keller’s 20th of the season, two shy of the Coyotes rookie record set by Peter Mueller in 2007-08. Keller is also two points short of Mueller’s Coyotes’ rookie record (54) and two assists short of Max Domi’s Coyotes rookie record (34).
20 goals for the rookie @ClaytonKeller37. pic.twitter.com/98Bab1SICv
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 18, 2018
Panik had a chance to widen the lead on another breakaway at 13:59 of the second period, but he shot the puck into Dubnyk’s glove. Dubnyk closed the door the rest of the way against his former team to record his 200th NHL win.
“It was a short time spent here, but this organization gave me my confidence back and believed in me and gave me a chance,” said Dubnyk, who played 19 games with Arizona in the 2014-15 season. “They’ll always kind of hold a special place for me.”
The Coyotes will conclude this five-game homestand against another former teammate and goalie, Calgary’s Mike Smith, when the Flames come to Gila River Arena on Monday.
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