In Tempe, the Coyotes’ season continued to spiral down on Friday night in their eighth straight loss, this time, 5-1, to the Carolina Hurricanes. 
Pyotr Kochetkov made 30 saves in the win.
The Canes got off to a fast start with a pair of goals in the early minutes of the opening stanza.
“We started really well, which was great to see, and our goalie played really well, too, I mean ‘Kooch’ made some real good saves,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We got ahead early and we kind of sat back, that happens, but the start was really good and made the difference.”
Carolina improved to 31-17-5.
Carolina scored quickly with Jordan Martinook hitting with 16 seconds gone in the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead.
“I thought we started on time, that goal was huge for us and got us going,” Carolina’s Michael Bunting said. “We didn’t take the foot off the gas, and we played to our standard.”
Jalen Chatfield followed that up with a strike at 4:50 for a 2-0 advantage.
“Our start was big, to get two quick ones, and then I think we exhaled a bit,” Martinook said.
Dylan Guenther was the lone striker for the Coyotes. He scored at 14:32 of the first to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“We started out really well and stuck to our game plan, but then we kind of started to turn the puck over in the neutral zone,” the Hurricanes’ Brett Pesce said. “[But] in the middle of the second period, we started doing a good job of simplifying our game.”
Arizona dropped to 23-25-4.
“The way we started was unfortunate, not because we didn’t play well, but [because] we need to be more detailed,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “And that’s on me. It’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
In the middle frame, Carolina’s Seth Jarvis scored at 6:28 for a 3-1 lead to the Canes.
“Weirdly enough, we probably played a better game (against Dallas) than we did tonight, but we got rewarded more here, we were able to put the puck in and capitalize a little bit more, and we’re making strides,” Jarvis said. “But we’ve still got some stuff to clean up.”
Teuvo Teravainen hit off the power play to give the Canes a 4-1 lead at 17:16 of the second.
Bunting added a marker at 4:37 of the third period for the 5-1 final count on the scoreboard.
“They’re a tough team to play against, the way they put pressure on you, the way they don’t let you change,” Tourigny said. “That happened on that goal. We were tired … and `Schmaltzy’ couldn’t get the puck out and they scored to make it 3-1, and that made it tough on us.”
Karel Vejmelka got the start for the Coyotes, he 21 saves, yielding five goals, before getting the hook in the third period.
Matt Villalta made four saves in relief, it was his NHL debut.
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