Coyotes pick up point in shootout loss in 1st of back-to-back vs. Avalanche

DENVER (AP) — Nazem Kadri scored the winner in a shootout and the Colorado Avalanche extended the NHL’s longest home winning streak in nearly four years to 13 games with a 4-3 victory over the undermanned Arizona Coyotes on Friday night.

Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Jost and Andre Burakovsky scored in regulation for Colorado and Pavel Francouz stopped 23 shots.

The last team to win 13 straight at home was Toronto from Jan. 31 to March 24, 2018. Colorado is 31-2-2 at home since March 10.

Two days after knocking off Toronto 2-1 despite being outshot 46-18, the Coyotes were outshot 47-25 against another top NHL team, but took a 3-2 lead on Shayne Gostisbehere’s goal 39 seconds into the third period.

Burakovsky tied it just 29 seconds later.

All-Star Clayton Keller scored his first career shorthanded goal and Johan Larsson also scored for Arizona, which went 0-for-3 in the shootout.

Ivan Prosvetov, called up from the minors this week, made 44 stops for Arizona in his second NHL game of the season. That included a sprawling leg save on Valeri Nichushkin in overtime.

Prosvetov has played in five NHL games, and three have been against the Avalanche.

“Back in the day, when I was younger, the best goalie in the league was Semyon Varlamov. I was watching him when I was a very young kid and he played for the Avalanche. So I was always playing for the Avalanche in Xbox and stuff,” Prosvetov said. “Definitely funny how life goes.”

The Avalanche have trailed in every game of their 6-0-1 stretch. This time, they blew a 2-0 first period lead.

Larsson’s goal at 6:12 in the second tied it at 2-2. Keller got one back late in the first when he stole the puck from Devon Toews while on the penalty kill and muscled a shot past Francouz that trickled over the goal line.

Colorado’s maligned power play killed off a two-minute 5-on-3 in the second period, but the Avs had trouble shaking off one of the NHL’s worst teams.

Colorado jumped on Arizona quickly when Rantanen knocked in a rebound at 4:36 for his 17th goal and Jost scored off Kurtis MacDermid’s nifty wraparound pass at 12:03, as Arizona’s makeshift defense struggled early.

Kyle Capobianco was the latest Coyotes defenseman to be placed in COVID-19 protocol before the game, joining Jakob Chychrun, Cam Dineen and Anton Stralman.

LOOSE PUCKS

The Coyotes were without assistant coach Mario Duhamel (COVID-19 protocols).

Avalanche F Gabriel Landeskog (COVID-19) missed his third straight game, but could return Saturday. Avs D Bowen Byram sat out his second straight game while on personal leave. Byram has been dealing with the lingering effects of multiple concussions. Colorado lost D Ryan Murray to an upper-body injury.

UP NEXT

The Coyotes host the Avalanche on Saturday night to complete a home-and-home set. Colorado goaltender Darcy Kuemper, traded by Arizona in the offseason, is scheduled to start.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM or 98.7 FM HD-2.