In Buffalo Wednesday night, rookie Clayton Keller set records for the Arizona Coyotes for points and assists in a season. His assist in the third period gave him 55 points and 35 assists on the season.
“[Keller] has been really good the whole year,” Antti Raanta said “Sometimes you think there might be good game, bad game, but I think he’s been learning all the time. I think he’s been one of the best forwards in this stretch, and I think it’s going to be just awesome to see how good he’s going to be in the future because he’s already so good.”
Raanta made 29 saves to backstop the Coyotes to a 4-1 win over the Sabres.
Rick Tocchet returned to the Coyotes bench following the funeral of his mother.
“I’m just a routine guy,” Tocchet said. “I like to get back in routine, that’s how my mom would’ve wanted me to be, to get back into these things, but just be as normal as possible.”
Richard Panik, Derek Stepan and Dylan Strome scored for the Coyotes.
“I liked the movement, and when you shoot the puck, good things happen,” Tocchet said. “In the past, we’ve been kind of passing around, but it’s nice to get pucks on net and things can happen.”
Jordan Nolan scored the lone Sabres goal.
Buffalo dropped to 23-38-12.
“We have to be better,” the Sabres’ Ryan O’Reilly said. “We have nothing to lose at this point. We have to go out there and throw everything we can at them, and we didn’t. We were too hesitant. It’s disappointing. It’s on myself; I’ve got to find a way to generate something.”
Max Domi added an empty-netter late to seal the win.
The Coyotes improved to 12-5-1 over their last 18 games.
“It’s actually awesome to play,” Raanta said. ” We had little talks at Christmastime, we were playing good games but we were always finding ways to lose the games, and when you get a couple of wins, when you start to get everybody on the same page, there’s no more passengers. … It’s been working. And that’s the thing, when you see things working and when you get the wins and when you turn those one-goal games in your advantage, it makes a huge difference.”
[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Sabres highlights]
Chad Johnson got the start for the Sabres but left with an injury; he made 13 saves.
“I will know more after today, I will get a chance to talk to our trainers,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said of Johnson’s injury. “It’s unfortunate that our goalies have to play a perfect game to win a game.”
Linus Ullmark made 12 saves in relief.
“That’s just where we are as a group. We can’t have any success. By the way, we lost that game (Monday against the Nashville Predators) 4-0, so you think you’d come out gangbusters to start the game. It was a very meaningful game in the respect that you’re last place in the League. That’s what’s hard to swallow and it’s just unacceptable,” Housleysaid after the dismal effort from his club.
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