In Glendale, the St Louis Blues broke out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and then let is slip away like so much sand in a wind storm.
Darcy Kuemper made 20 saves and the Arizona Coyotes rallied on Saturday, for a 3-2 win.
“We’d lost a lot of games at the end [of the nine-game road trip], but I felt like we played some good hockey. We were in every game against some good teams, so we had a lot of confidence in our group,” Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “If we keep playing that way, the points and the wins are going to come.”
Kuemper returned to the Coyotes crease after missing 19 games.
“Obviously, you want to be in there for such a big game,” Kuemper said. “It’s a great, great game to come back in and get a little bit of that adrenaline going. It’s a huge two points.”
Tyler Bozak and Sammy Blais staked the Blues to the early lead in the first period.
“It’s a big game and they played really tight defensively,” Bozak said. “They don’t let you create a lot of opportunities. They did a good job after our two goals of slowing us down. … We’ve got to put this one behind us because it’s going to be important game after important games.”
The win pushed Arizona into the fourth spot in the division by one point.
“We have a great start and we know they’re going to make a push, but we don’t turn up the aggression,” the Blues’ Ryan O’Reilly said. “We stopped playing, every single one of us. … It killed us.”
Michael Bunting scored the game-winner in the third period for Arizona.
Alex Goligoski scored early in the middle frame to cut the Blues lead to 2-1.
“That’s `Kuemps.’ Even if he lets a goal in here or there, he really fights through it,” Arizona head coach Rick Tocchet said. “He shut them down the rest of the way.”
Clayton Keller tied the game, 2-2, midway through the second period.
Jordan Binnington made 26 saves in the loss.
“We’re prepared for the game, we started off really well, we get the 2-0 lead, and we come out for the second period and we’re not aggressive anymore,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said. “We sit back and let teams come at us and get on our heels. You lose that aggressiveness, sometimes it’s hard to get it back.”
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