In Glendale, the Arizona Coyotes scored three goals in the third period and finally posted a “1” in the win column with a 5-4 decision over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
Arizona’s Lawson Crouse‘s second goal of the game came just 13 seconds after the Kraken had tied the game, 4-4, on a goal by Mark Giordano.
“That’s the ideal way to answer back when they tie it up late,” Crouse said. “We just stuck with it, and we’re obviously happy, very happy, to get this one out of the way.”
Karel Vejmelka got the start for the Coyotes, but was given the hook after yielding two goals on the first two shots of the game in under one minute of play.
Scott Wedgewood made 27 saves in relief.
“I don’t know what it is about ‘Wedgy,’ but obviously he played an incredible game for us when he came in,” Crouse said..
Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde staked the Kraken to the early 2-0 lead.
“This was a big lesson for us,” Seattle’s Nathan Bastian (goal) said. “Coming out with the lead that early, you have to learn how to finish teams off, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd and Antoine Roussel all scored for the Coyotes.
“We’re proud of the way we bounced back,” said Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny, who got his first NHL win. “I thought we played for 60 minutes. We weren’t perfect, we will never be perfect, but we stayed with it. We believed in ourselves and what we had to do, and we found a way.”
Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves in the loss.
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