In Tempe, the Coyotes scored three goals in the first period on Friday night en route to a 4-0 shutout of the visiting Detroit Red Wings.
Connor Ingram made 28 saves in the win.
“Your goalie, when he makes the difference like that, that changes your team,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think you play [with] a kind of energy and confidence, and you know that if you make a few mistakes, [it won’t be] in the back of the net.”
He has six shutouts on the season.
The Coyotes moved to 26-33-5.
“Honestly, it’s always nice when you can count on your goalie to make big saves back there,” Arizona’s Logan Cooley said. “Some of those, he shouldn’t have had to make such tough saves, but he’s been a brick wall back there. He’s been unbelievable for us.”
Arizona broke early and often in the first.
Jack McBain gave Ingram all the offense he needed with a strike at 2:35 for a 1-0 lead.
“It’s always a key to get off to a good start, we got a goal early and kind of built on that,” Cooley said. “It was nice to get a win on home ice, too. It was a solid effort from bottom to top.”
The Coyotes’ Alex Kerfoot pushed the lead to 2-0 ahead of the midway point of the first, scoring off a deflection.
“I thought the guys were ready to compete, but it was just an inability to compete early on,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “No energy, no pop, it goes into a little bit of detail, some easy goals against. It comes back to some [lack of] effort and detail.”
Cooley hit off the power play at 17:04 to balloon the advantage to 3-0.
“We’ve got to be ready right from the get-go, and [not] taking positives (out of losses) when we need points,” the Red Wings’ Andrew Copp said. “We’ve got to focus on what we’ve been talking about for months now, team defense. … We’ve got plenty of capable players who can put the puck in the net, but we really [need] commitment to that defense.”
The Red Wings dropped to 33-24-6, and have lost four straight.
“We’re in a little rut right now, but good teams find a way out of this stuff,” Detroit’s Jake Walman said. “Every team kind of goes through it, but this is crunch time right now and we’ve got to find a way out real quick.”
Nick Bjugstad padded the lead in the middle frame with a goal at 8:16, scoring from the right circle.
“We know what the standings are, and we’ve got to put our best foot forward every game on,” Walman said. “We are finding ourselves behind sometimes, or find ourselves giving up easy chances and giving up leads. We just got to stay dialed in all the time.”
Alex Lyon made 20 saves in the loss.
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