Coyotes remain hot, down Isles, 2-0 Road has been kind to Coyotes -

In Elmont, there was no Islanders rally in the third period on Thursday night.

Travis Boyd hit for a power play goal one minute into the third period to give the visiting Arizona Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

“No matter what the outside perception of our team is or (what) everyone says outside, inside our room we believe in us,” Boyd said. “We believe in our group. We play with a lot of pride and we play with a lot of heart every night, and when we play the right way, we get results. That’s where it is.”

Karel Vejmelka made the goal stand up for 18 plus minutes and the Coyotes won, 2-0, he made 24 saves in the win.

“It’s so special for a goalie,” Vejmelka said. “It’s my second (shutout), so I’m really happy tonight, especially against a team like the Islanders, one of the best teams (in the League). So I’m really happy.”

The Coyotes improved to 6-6-1.

“Keller and I have some pretty good chemistry, and we were talking about it (going) into the third, about what he was seeing, what I’m seeing, and yeah, (it was) just a little variation of what we usually do,” Boyd said. “He kind of started walking down, so (I) just kind of fell off to that backside and he was able to put it on my tape, and I was able to direct it in.

Arizona has won three straight, and they are 5-2-1 in the last eight.

The Isles dropped to 9-6-0.

“You can’t score if you don’t hit the net,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “(That’s) the bottom line. Seventeen attempts blocked and 23 missed nets or missed shots. That’s too many.”

Jack McBain sealed the win for Arizona with an empty-net goal with 31 seconds left in the game.

“We were almost surprised when the puck went in,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “(We) didn’t know that this guy could give (up) a goal. He’s really good. He’s solid. I think (we) needed a really good play to beat him, and I think he was in the zone.”

Ilya Sorokin made 27 saves in the New York loss.

“Credit to Arizona, they did a good job boxing it up,” Islanders center Mathew Barzal said. “They were aggressive all night, play-in-your-face system, and yeah, gave us a little bit of trouble.”