In Glendale, Antti Raanta made 25 saves as the Arizona Coyotes edged out the New York Islanders Monday afternoon, 2-1.
“We had a defend-first mentality,” Raanta said. “If you can limit the other team’s chances, you’re closer to winning. I thought we played pretty smart.”
Clayton Keller broke a long goal drought in the Coyotes home win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Anthony Beauvillier broke through for the Isles to end Raanta’s bid for a shut out, at 6:42 of the third period.
“We hit four posts, had a breakaway, put one off the knob of [Raanta’s] stick, and had a puck in the crease. We talk about a game of inches, but it’s really a game of centimeters right now,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought as much as [Arizona] deserved to win that game, so did we.”
For New York, it was third straight loss.
“It’s been tough for us lately to find goals and we got one there from Beau to give us life, we just weren’t able to get the second one,” the Isles Anders Lee said. “Chances over and over. You just got to find a way to put it in.”
Clayton Keller staked the Coyotes to a 1-0 lead early in the first period, it was his first goal in 18 games.
“These are huge wins. We needed one against Washington (3-1 victory on Saturday) and same with today,” Keller said. “We had a ton of confidence and we wanted it to carry over.”
Michael Garland extended the Coyotes’ lead to 2-0 with a goal just ahead of Beauvillier.
“I felt the last few games that this is the best they played as a line,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said of the Keller-Nick Schmaltz–Phil Kessel line. “If they can just commit to playing in the right way in their own end, they’re going to get chances the other way.”
Beauvillier ‘s goal snapped a scoreless string of more than 166 minutes for the Islanders.
“The reason the Islanders are successful is they’re comfortable in their own skin,” Tocchet said. “I felt the last two games, especially, we’re comfortable with who we are. We have to just be able to maintain that, with 21 guys believing that. You can’t have four or five guys trying to push the envelope somewhere else.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Coyotes highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves in the loss.
“It’s just one of those stretches where it’s not going in for us,” Lee said. “You’ve got to continue to make plays and stay on top of it and we’ll find a way, it’ll come. We’re playing fine hockey, we’re just not putting the puck in the net.”
Andy Greene played his first game with the Islanders after being acquired in a trade with the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
“I had a crash course and everything, and I just tried to retain everything and slowly build a game there,” Greene said. “As the game went on, I felt a little better. I wish we could have found another one (goal) there, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort or lack of chances.”
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