In Tempe, Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang had the puck on his stick with a delayed penalty called against the Coyotes on Monday night. He circled back from the neutral zone to his defensive zone and then attempted a back pass. 
“I should know better; I should not go backward when the net is open,” Letang said. “I’ll learn from it.”
The pass missed its intended target, a Penguins defenseman, and end up in the net for own goal and a 4-2 lead to the Coyotes.
Nick Bjugstad pushed the Arizona advantage to 5-2 at 7:04 of the third.
That goal seemed to exemplify just how old the Penguins are as a team. The Coyotes were able to skate around and past the Penguins most of the night with relative ease.
Jason Zucker scored at 2:23 of the opening stanza to stake the Coyotes to a 1-0 lead.
Connor Ingram made 25 saves n the win.
Arizona improved to 23-19-3.
“I think we played a good 60 minutes, I think we played well all game,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “There’s no part of the game where I said all we lost our game for a minute.”
Lars Eller scored at 4:50 of the middle frame to tie the game, 1-1, for the Penguins.
Arizona responded with a strike by Juuso Valimaki off a wrist shot from the low slot and was virtually unmarked by the Pittsburgh defense. His goal gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.
“We play a different style a little bit than Pittsburgh, we have less shot volume … but I think he’s found his game,” Tourigny said. “I think his teammates know him better, they put more pucks for him in that area, and it ended up paying off.”
Sidney Crosby scored his 27th of the campaign at 16:30 off a tip in in front of the net to knot the game, 2-2.
“It’s definitely frustrating. I don’t know how many times you’re going to see that in your lifetime, it just happens, it’s an honest mistake,” the Penguins’ Jake Guentzel said.
The Penguins dropped to 21-17-6.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the last four periods, we recognize that it’s not our best, but I don’t think ‘discouraged’ is a word should enter our dressing room,” Pens coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think we’ve just got to get more determined.”
The Coyotes replied to the Crosby goal when Alex Kerfoot scored at 18:01 of the middle frame for a 3-2 lead to Arizona headed to the third period.
“That felt pretty good,” Kerfoot said. “Everybody knows that the [All-Star] break is coming up, and we’ve talked about playing hard and making sure we find ways to to win before the break.”
Kerfoot had parked himself at the right corner of the Pittsburgh crease, unmolested, and took a back pass from Zucker behind the cage for the easy tap in and a 3-2 lead.
“We liked a lot of the stuff we were doing, and we stayed with it,” Zucker said. “I thought out [defense] corp
s was amazing tonight. They were in their face all night, not giving them a lot of time and space, and they’re a world-class team with a lot of world-class players.”
Tristan Jarry made 22 saves in the loss.
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