In Glendale, the Arizona Coyotes put a complete came together and handed the Vegas Golden Knights their first loss of the season, 5-2, on Friday night.
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves in the win.
Conor Garland scored once and had three points in the effort..
“It felt like a must-win,” Garland said. “It was a response game for us, and I felt like we had our legs and we pushed the pace. They had a couple of pushes, but we held our ground. It was a good response from us.”
Shea Theodore and Cody Glass scored for Vegas.
“They played a great defensive game, and we didn’t execute,” Theodore said. “We’ve got to be a lot better defensively, especially in our transition. They took it to us.”
Christian Dvorak and Nick Schmaltzadded a goal and two points on the scoresheet for the Coyotes.
“I didn’t think we were that bad in Vegas, and to be honest, I wasn’t really concerned,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I just thought we needed to shore up a couple of things. I thought we were tenacious on the puck, the forechecking was good and ‘Kuemps’ was excellent.”
Derick Brassard gave Arizona a 2-1 lead in the second period.
“We don’t have guys who are going to hammer guys on the ice, but we have guys who are diligent,” Tocchet said. “They’re pesky. There’s different ways to have intimidation, and ours is with our speed and staying diligent on our checks.”
Jordan Oesterle added an empty-net, power play goal to seal the win, the Coyotes improved to 2-2-1.
Robin Lehner made 21 saves in the loss.
“I didn’t think we were that bad in Vegas, and to be honest, I wasn’t really concerned,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I just thought we needed to shore up a couple of things. I thought we were tenacious on the puck, the forechecking was good and ‘Kuemps’ was excellent.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.