Coyotes survive wild ride to beat Avs as offense awakens

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Say what you will about blowing a 4-1 lead — that was fun.

Maybe it wasn’t as much “fun” for those involved.

The Arizona Coyotes went up 4-1, surrendered three unanswered goals and then scored the game-winner to beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-4 (empty-netter) on Saturday night. There was a big fight, a first NHL goal, a goaltender change and an unlikely hero — again — in between the puck drop and a Coyotes win.

And what’s more, Arizona broke a streak of three straight games in which they scored 1 or fewer goals. Six in one game, for a change, isn’t bad.

“I wish we would’ve won it 4-1 and moved on and just kind of walked into San Jose, but those ones are — if we would’ve lost that one it would’ve been a heartbreaker, definitely,” forward Brad Richardson said. “But it definitely feels good when you’re on the right end.”

Adin Hill made 24 saves as Arizona outshot the Avalanche 39-28. The Coyotes went 0-for-2 on the power play.

“We kept it entertaining until then end, but we have to be better and just manage those games,” Richard Panik said. “We were up 4-1, just play smarter and keep playing our style.”

Arizona scored two first-period goals as Panik scored the first of the game to put Arizona up 1-0 and Derek Stepan scored with 4.8 seconds remaining in the first period to make it 2-1. Christian Fischer got a goal in the second period on some skilled passing from his linemates, Alex Galchenyuk and Nick Schmaltz, and Conor Garland scored the first of his career to make it 4-1.

In the third, Colorado came back to tie it 4-4 on goals from Gabe Landeskog, Alex Kerfoot (his second of the night) and Nathan MacKinnon, but the go-ahead goal by Brad Richardson set up his second goal of the night, an empty-netter, getting to a 6-4 final score.

Richardson now leads the Coyotes with 10 goals on the season. His career high is 14, coincidentally for the Avalanche in 2006-07.

“I don’t care. Right now, I don’t care who scores. I’ll take [assistant equipment manager] Denver Wilson to score a goal. It doesn’t matter,” head coach Rick Tocchet said. “But no, I’m happy for Richie because he works hard. He told me this summer, too, after we signed him, ‘I’m going to definitely score a lot more than I did last year.’ And obviously he’s holding his end of the bargain.”

Richardson had three goals in 76 games last season.

The Panik, Stepan, Clayton Keller line — seen frequently in the latter half of last season — was clicking Saturday as it was reunited for the second game in a row. That helped the Coyotes get goals from both Stepan and Keller, and Panik stood out at other points in the game on both ends of the ice.

“I think we have pretty much everything on that line,” Panik said. “Kells, he’s really good with the puck. I’m trying to win the battles for him, and Step is really good defensively so I think it makes everybody’s on the line’s working.”

Garland got his first of the season and of his career, a goal that put Arizona up 4-1, adding a thorough celebration at the end.

Solid first NHL goal celly from Garland. pic.twitter.com/37Tnie4QQa

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) December 23, 2018

“I try to tell myself not to [celebrate],” Garland said. “But I had no choice– I mean I kind of just went numb. It was tough, actually. I don’t want to look at it.”

Lawson Crouse and Landeskog dropped the gloves while the game was tied. It was a lengthy exchange of punches that even made its way to the bench wall, knocking team photographer Norm Hall out of his seat.

Can confirm: Norm is OK. pic.twitter.com/mFzPVfnx7U

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) December 23, 2018

Coming into Saturday, the Coyotes had not won in regulation since Dec. 4 (eight games since then, one overtime win). Beating the Colorado Avalanche was much-needed, and it came in an unusual way.

“We defended well, especially that top line early, that gave us some confidence,” Tocchet said. “I think the first goal kind of — everybody kind of breathed — and I think the second one kind of helped us and loosened some guys up.”

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