In Glendale, Christian Dvorak‘s second strike of the game came with 4:25 left in regulation to give the Arizona Coyotes a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
“He (Phil Kessel) made a great play and put it right on my stick,” Dvorak said. “We were pretty confident about our game. We had a lot of possession time, and it was just about bearing down and going to the net and getting pucks to the net.”
Darcy Kuemper made 14 saves for the win.
“There’s pressure on all the teams right now,” Arizona head coach Rick Tocchet said. “It’s a short (56-game) season, so if you lose a couple of games, the heat’s right on you. So it was nice to get the win.”
Jacob Silfverberg and Danton Heinen scored for the Ducks.
“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Silfverberg said. “When we feel like it’s maybe not them doing their best, rather it’s us shooting ourselves in the foot. We got caught out there (on long shifts) way too many times. If you’re out there for more than a minute, it’s going to be a tough one.”
Conor Garland also scored for the Coyotes.
“We were focusing on trying to get to the front of the net and get those greasy goals,” Arizona’s Jordan Oesterle said. “We got three greasy goals, it paid off, and now we’ve got to keep that going.”
The Coyotes improved to 3-4-1.
“It was a good period for us, and it obviously got us going and gave us momentum,” Dvorak said. “I thought we had a lot of energy. Obviously, we knew it was a big game for us, we didn’t want to lose again here at home.”
John Gibson made 31 saves in the loss.
“You’d like to at least grab a point if you can’t get the win, and with that power-play goal, we were excited to finally get one in the net,” Anaheim head coach Dallas Eakins said. “So it’s a pretty empty feeling right now.”
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