In Glendale Saturday, the Arizona Coyotes were hoping to end a four-game skid and get to playing good hockey.
Jordan Martinook took a flip pass from Shane Doan on a set play and beat Jonathan Quick just 22 seconds into the third period to lead the Coyotes to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
“He just flipped it right where it needed to be,” Martinook said. “I don’t think Doughty knew I was that close, and I grabbed it. It sat down good for me, and I just tried to make a quick move. [Doan] is so good at that flip and he just always says, ‘You go and skate into it.’ That’s exactly what I tried to do, and that time it worked.”
Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Coyotes who finished a homestand at 3-3-1.
“Obviously, we wish that it was better,” Martinook said. “But to finish the way we did, with a win against L.A., it’s a big win and hopefully it gets us going.”
Nick Shore and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings in a lackluster effort.
“I don’t think tonight was nearly as good as it needed to be for a win,” the Kings’ Anze Kopitar said. “Top to bottom, everybody’s got to be a lot better. It’s a quick turnaround going into a tough building (at the San Jose Sharks on Sunday), so we’ve got to be ready.”
Louis Domingue made 26 saves for the win.
“I’m still learning in this league,” Domingue said. “I never thought they would give the goal … the strapping came off my mask and I couldn’t see; the mask goes below your eyes, so I just took it off. I thought they would blow the whistle. I should have gone back in the goal and I will never make that mistake again.
“I never dive on any play, so he definitely put me down. But I never thought it should have been a penalty. I just thought the play would end.”
The three-game sweep of the NHL from Saturday night starts in Toronto where the Montreal Canadiens ended a five-game skid with a 3-2 win after the skills competition with the Maple Leafs.
Lars Eller netted the winner for the Habs who were in desperate need of a win.
“You have to like it,” Eller said. “It’s what you live for as an athlete. Of course I was a bit nervous, but you have to be a little bit nervous when you are put in that situation. It’s fun. It’s where you want to be.”
The Leafs were beaten in a lackluster effort after a day off the ice.
“We gave the players the day off (Friday),” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. “We won’t be doing that again.”
Mike Condon made 17 saves in the win for Montreal who improved to 24-20-4.
“We had a lot of trouble in the first period of games the past few weeks, so getting that first goal and then getting another one gave us a lot of confidence in the third period,” Condon said. “They came out and kind of took it to us in the second period and started chipping away at our lead, but we stuck with it and I am very happy with the outcome.”
Tomas Fleischmann and David Desharnais gave the Habs a 2-0 lead in the first before the Leafs rallied to tie.
Nazem Kadri and Joffrey Lupul scored to get the game even and send it to overtime.
“I can’t tell you how often in the last while we have been on the wrong side of those things that make the difference in the outcome of the game,” Eller said. “Finally we were on the right side of that today and I think we deserve it.”
In Boston, the Bruins’ Jonas Gustavsson made 31 saves through 65 minutes of play and then stopped two shooters in the skills competition to help Boston down the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2.
Gustavsson was a surprise starter for the Bruins.
“He got the news at the last minute that he was playing,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “Tuukka was scheduled to play, and we made a change there this afternoon for certain reasons, that Tuukka maybe wasn’t 100 percent. Nothing major; obviously he was our backup. So [Gustavsson] had to go in there, and for a guy that found out just as he got to the rink this afternoon, he did well and he was well-prepared.”
Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak scored for Boston in regulation.
Dalton Prout and Kerby Rychel rallied the Jackets from a 2-0 deficit in the second with their own goals in the middle frame.
“Boston’s a real good team. I thought we competed hard and worked hard for 60 minutes, and we had no passengers tonight,” said Columbus associate coach Craig Hartsburg, who filled in for John Tortorella. “We got down, and that was a huge goal by [Prout] to get us back in it. But we battled all night long.”
Tortorella did not travel with the club after breaking ribs in practice Friday.
“It always feels good,” Prout said. “When you’re growing up and score goals as a kid, that’s what everybody wants to do. So there’s a little kid in you that always wants to score, and of course it felt good, and more importantly it got us back in the game there.”
In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers have found their stride again and on Saturday, they defeated the Tampa Bay Lighting, 5-2.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad each had a goal in the first period and each added an assist in the win.
“We know we can beat any team in the League,” Huberdeau said. “That just means that we’re a really good team and we can just show we’ve had a struggle lately and we came out this weekend and showed the League that we’re a good team against a really good team too.”
Reilly Smith and Vincent Trocheck also scored in the first when the Panthers took a 4-0 lead.
“We knew it was going to be two tough games,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “It was a good challenge for our team because we haven’t played well the last probably five or six games prior; even though we won a few of those games, we didn’t get back to our game. And I thought this weekend up until the third period we played great hockey. And that’s what we need to do.”
Brian Campbell had an empty-net goal for Florida.
Victor Hedman and J.T. Brown scored for the Bolts.
“You know you’re not going to win them all,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “We just didn’t play well. That’s a good team over there. They’re first place for a reason. We’ve had some tight games (but) this one got away from us. It’s one of the first games we got dominated in a period like that.”
Roberto Luongo had 38 saves in the win that snapped the Lightning’s win streak at seven.
“I need a lot of rest after tonight,” Luongo said. “Obviously they’re a good team. They weren’t going to lay down. It was a busy third period, but we were able to come out of there with the two points.
“Under normal circumstances, I would have split it with [backup Al Montoya], but given the fact that this game was really important and there was no travel and it was both home games, it was a bit easier for me to recoup and re-energize for the second game and allow me to play both.”
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