Whatever happens the rest of the way this season, the Arizona Coyotes cannot be considered a doormat in the NHL.
On Sunday night, the Coyotes’ Darcy Kuemper made 34 saves to backstop the club to a 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
Lawson Crouse was credited with a goal in win over Jets – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“It’s fun,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said of being in the playoff race. “There are big things at stake here.”
The Yotes improved to 29-28-5 and are three points back of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Patrik Laine scored the Jets lone goal as they dropped to 37-21-4.
“They are a desperate team to stay in the race, but like I said, things are tough for us right now,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “It’s something we’ve got to work through. The score aside, if you look at the zone time we got, the looks we got, and the shots, you say before the game it’s probably a game we win.”
Clayton Keller broke a long goal drought with a strike in the win.
“Sometimes he’ll take two more steps and two more fakes and then shoot it, and now it’s one move and a shot, and he’s got a great shot,” Tocchet said. “Players like him are streaky. If he keeps shooting the puck, it’ll go in for him.”
Brad Richardson and Lawson Crouse also scored for the Coyotes.
“A lot of us had a lot of extra juice tonight because that was a pretty cool ceremony,” Richardson said. “It kind of got emotional at times.”
Josh Archibald added an empty net goal late to seal it for Arizona.
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Laurent Brossoit made 20 saves in the loss.
“When things are tough for your team, the puck bounces the other way, it doesn’t go necessarily to the guy that’s open on the back door, they don’t kick one in for us. It’s a lot of those things when your team’s fighting it a little bit,” Wheeler said.
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