Mike Smith has been on a roll for the Arizona Coyotes of late and Thursday night he made 31 saves in 5-3 win over Kings in Los Angeles.
Mike Smith stayed hot with win over LA- file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Arizona’s Brendan Perlini and Jordan Martinook each had two goals in the win.
“Good character by the guys,” Perlini said. “We showed it every time they scored we scored right after, so it’s all a credit to the guys and working hard and battling and not giving in.”
The Kings, who are in a dogfight for the wild card in the west, got goals from Tanner Pearson who struck twice and Dustin Brown.
“You fall behind a couple [of goals] early and you are chasing the game,” Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar said. “Like I said, we just got to play better. The first goal we gave up was a power-play goal [and] you know we are talking about special teams being important against this team, and the second is almost like a stuff play on the goal line, and when you are down two you are trying to push the envelope as much as you can.”
The loss dropped the Kings to 28-24-4.
Tobias Rieder also had a goal for the Coyotes who improved to 20-29-7.
“We knew going into the third we wanted to make sure we got our fair share of offensive zone time. We were doing alright and then they came back and got one, and we got up again, so you feel like you’re playing the same way and then you give up another one,” Arizona head coach Dave Tippett said.
WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Kings highlights
Peter Budaj made 17 saves in the loss.
“We were coming back all the way through there. Third goal is a bad goal against, fourth goal is a long shot shorthanded goal. … It was 2-0 entering the third and [we] still believed we were going to win. Just feel like something has just got to hit you there,” LA head coach Darryl Sutter said of the late effort from his squad.
You must be logged in to post a comment.