In Seattle, Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves for the Arizona Coyotes n a 5-2 win over the Kraken on Wednesday night.
“Seattle has speed to get really good scoring chances but our goalie came up big,” Arizona head coach André Tourigny said. “[Vejmelka] made the difference. He made key saves at key moments and that’s what you need sometimes. When you have a breakdown and your goalie makes a big save, after the game you remember it. Tonight he made those key saves and gave us a chance to bounce back right away.”
Phil Kessel scored the game’s first goal, his first in 18 games, to pu the Coyotes up, 1-0, in a bid for a good move by the trade deadline.
The Coyotes improved to 12-31-4.
Colin Blackwell and Calle Jarnkrok were the Seattle strikers in the loss.
“We weren’t sharp, we weren’t clean with the puck,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said. “In reality, each of their three goals came off our sticks. … The rust showed, we’re not making an excuse, but we weren’t sharp when we didn’t have the puck. That area of our game was not at the level it needed to be. Without the puck we weren’t connecting as much as we are when it’s going well.”
The Kraken fell to 15-28-4.
“We had good looks,” Blackwell said. “There’s more we can do to generate more offense. We generated enough looks. That guy made a ton of big saves and we were getting pucks on net, but we need to get more chances. I think we need to do a better job of getting traffic.”
Nick Schmaltz extended the Coyotes’ lead to 2-0.
“It’s no secret it’s always better to play with the lead,” the Coyotes’ Alex Galchenyuk (goal) said. “When Kessel found that goal, me and [Lawson Crouse] were on the bench and saying ‘he’s feeling it right now’. He scored a big goal and that got the bench fired up. When you come into a game and you want to bounce back and you get on the lead right away, it’s a completely different game.”
Anton Stralman also scored for the Coyotes.
Galchenyuk and Schmaltz added empty-net goals to put the game in the win column for Arizona.
Philipp Grubauer made 22 saves in the Kraken loss.
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