In Newark, the Arizona Coyotes hung a 4-1 loss on the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
Karel Vejmelka made 35 saves in the Coyotes win.
“We’ve got to understand and learn how to play with a lead,” Hischier said. “I feel like we had the game under control. We just have to learn to stick with it. There was not a lot of energy left and you can’t let the momentum change that quickly. There’s still a lot of hockey left. We have to understand that and learn it.”
Nico Hischier staked New Jersey to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
New Jersey fell to 14-19-5.
Coyotes’ defenseman, Jakob Chychrun made his return to the lineup after missing 11 games for injury and COVID19 protocol.
“I just wanted to simplify,” Chychrun said. “When you miss that much time, I think you need little refreshers here and there. I felt my feet were moving, I was jumping up into plays. I wanted to defend hard and move my feet, and I think I did a decent job of that.”
Arizona tied the game, 1-1, in the middle frame off a goal from Dysin Mayo at 6:32.
Lawson Crouse, who had a goal and two points in the win, gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead at 11:32 of the stanza.
“The one thing we knew about our team when we started training camp was we had a lot of players with a chip on their shoulder,” Arizona head coach Andre Tourigny said. “[Eriksson’s] consistency in his approach and being a pro for that long has been important, and Travis Boyd wanted to prove he can be a contributor to the team in the role he’s been before … and he’s taking his opportunity and playing really good for us.”
Arizona improved to 10-24-4.
“I knew we would bounce back,” Tourigny said. “That doesn’t mean we knew we will win, but we knew the worst was behind us (after the first period}. I really liked the way the guys were talking on the bench; they were solution driven. They were talking, looking at what was happening, and where we had to do better.
“The first period wasn’t our best, and the Devils played really well, but I knew we’d be better.”
Travis Boyd pushed the lead to 3-1 just over two minutes later.
“We got the puck into their zone and I was able to get some room behind the net and bank it up on the wall to Mayo, and he made a good shot with a couple screens in front of their goalie, so it was nice to see that one go in,” the Coyotes’ Loui Eriksson said.
Johan Larsson iced the win with a goal near the midway point of the final frame for the 4-1 final.
“He’s (Vejmelka) just got a lot of confidence, a lot of swagger,” Chychrun said. “He’s very calm in the net and he’s been really key for us this year. I think he’s just kind of soaking it all in and so happy to see his success. He works at keeping it up, and we’re going to need him to continue to play that way.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 13 saves in the loss.
“I think the ability to fight through a little bit of the frustration when you play that well and don’t score [is something we need to learn],” New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff said. “When you see three of the first four or five shots go in, you’ve got to battle through that frustration.”
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