In Tempe, Clayton Keller had the first and last words to say on Sunday night. In between, he had some other words as he hit for a hat trick and helped the Coyotes to a 5-4 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.
His strike in extra time sealed the win.
Karel Vejmelka made 37 saves in the Coyotes win.
It’s good to be home for Arizona, they won both games on the current homestand after a 14-game roadie.
The Coyotes improved to 9-13-4.
Keller scored in the first period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.
“He is playing way different than he did at the start of the season,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said of Keller, who missed the final month of last season with a broken leg. “He’s playing with more pace, he has more speed, he puts more pucks on the net. In my opinion, he’s back to where he was last year.”
Philadelphia’s Morgan Frost tied it, 1-1, at 2:09 for the second period.
“It was a good way to battle back and [get] a point at the end, but obviously we want to start winning some games,” Frost said.
Two minutes later James Van Riemsdyk put the Flyers up, 2-1, but Keller’s second of the night knotted the game, 2-2, just two and half minutes later.
Philadelphia dropped its third straight, and 15th in 17 games; their record dropped to 9-13-7.
“We’ve got to get that figured out,” coach John Tortorella said. “We battled back three times tonight. Now we’ve got to figure out end of games, figure out how to score that goal.”
Arizona’s Jack McBain and the Flyers Own Tippett traded goals before the end of the middle frame to send the game to the third tied, 3-3.
“We move `Tip’ on that line … I thought they checked well and that’s a big reason why they had the puck,” Tortorella said. “With `Frosty,’ if his legs are moving and he just allows himself to play, he’s a pretty effective player.”
In the third, Nick Ritchie put the Coyotes up, 4-3.
“Give the Flyers credit, they were physical and hard-working … and came here and took a little bit of advantage of maybe our mental fatigue,” Tourigny said. “But we like the resilience of our group. We found a way to win the game.”
The Flyers forced the extra session when Travis Konecny scored to tie the game, 4-4.
“We had a good first period and maybe we got a little overconfident and they had us down there,” Keller said. “But `Veggie’ [Vejmelka] was great there and kept us in the game, and we were able to come back.”
Use code PHN15 for the holidays
Carter Hart made 24 saves in the Flyers loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.