In Edmonton, the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with 12 seconds left in regulation to force extra time with the Arizona Coyotes.
Vinnie Hinostroza had given the Coyotes a 2-1 lead earlier in the third period and then potted the winner in the skills competition.
Vinnie Hinostroza scored in regulation and got the skills winner – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I thought we played a great game, and for 60 minutes, I think we controlled most of the game,” Hinostroza said. “I think everyone was ready to go.
“We weren’t happy about our effort the last game (5-2 loss at the Calgary Flames on Monday), so we knew this game was going to be a playoff game for us.”
Darcy Kuemper made 35 saves to get the win as the Coyotes now trail the second card spot by one point with the Minnesota Wild losing to the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday night.
“We worked hard tonight,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “We could have been up about 5-0 after the second, but give Edmonton credit, they stuck with it.”
The Oilers are 1-8-3 in their last 12.
“We are going to keep working and battling to find our way back into the playoffs,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We are going to keep pushing. We obviously know we need to get rolling and string some wins together.
“The last four games, I actually feel we have worked hard and played well; we just haven’t been able to come out with the two points in any of them. We need to keep pushing. There isn’t going to be any shortage of work effort for the rest of the year from us.”
Josh Archibald also scored for Arizona.
“All our [penalty] killers did a great job, whether it was 5-on-4 or 5-on-3,” Hinostroza said. “Killing that 5-on-3 was huge. Whenever you can kill one of those, you give yourself a chance to win the game.”
Adam Larsson also scored for Edmonton.
“This is six of the last seven games we’ve played awfully well,” Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We had a little bit of a soft second period, we lost a lot of face-offs and ended up defending a lot. But this is now six of seven games where we’ve worked really hard and competed at a high level.”
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Mikko Koskinen made 33 saves in the loss.
“I thought we played a pretty solid game other than the first 10 minutes of the second period when we let them come on a little too much,” Leon Draisaitl said. “That third period was as good as you can play it, probably. We probably could have won the game, but credit to them too; they played hard. It was a good point for us. We just have to keep building.”
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