The three-game sweep of the NHL from Friday starts in Glendale where the Arizona Coyotes got a goal from Oliver Ekman-Larsson with 40 seconds left in extra time to edge the Calgary Flames, 2-1.
Coyotes coach Dave Tippett earned his 500th NHL win in the victory and received the team’s victory belt after the game.
“I’m not wearing it. I can’t even lift it,” said Tippett. “It means I’ve been around a long time and been really lucky in the two organizations I’ve worked for (also the Dallas Stars). Players win games, and I’ve been fortunate to work with some great players.”
Arizona improved to 12-9-1 on the season
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“I still enjoy it,” Tippett said. “I’m still really happy when we win, and when you lose, you’re not happy. It’s a good sign that it’s still that way after this long. I’ve been involved in a lot of ugly games among those 500 wins, and it was probably fitting that it was an ugly game.”
Mike Smith made 25 saves in the win.
“We got lucky to get a win tonight,” said Ekman-Larsson. “Our penalty-kill unit was unbelievable, and Smitty played great back there tonight. They are the reason we got the points tonight.”
In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers picked up a win in the skills competition over the New York Islanders Friday.
Aleksander Barkov scored the winning marker in the shootout.
“As long as we won it, it didn’t matter (how it went),” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “I’m sure it was entertaining for the fans and the guys did a good job; we scored a lot of goals. Probably another record, I’m assuming.”
Roberto Luongo had 23 saves for the win.
The shootout went five rounds with only one save, Luongo’s stop of Brock Nelson‘s writer.
“This time, we were trying to go 20 rounds but without making a save,” Luongo said. “It didn’t work out that way. It kind of hit me by accident there. But we’ll take it.”
In Detroit, the Red Wings needed a goal from Niklas Kronwall 26 seconds into extra time to escape the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3.
“[Dylan Larkin] made a really nice play to get out of the zone and then he just held it and held it,” Kronwall said. “When he put the pass right on my stick, I knew I had to get it on net, but I was happy when it went in.”
Cam Talbot took another loss for the Oilers on 28 saves.
Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and Larkin scored for the Wings in regulation.
“I thought we played extremely well, for the first half of the game, but I wasn’t happy with about the last eight minutes of the second or any of the third,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We were immature in the second half of the game instead of doing what we needed to finish it off.”
Iiro Pakarinen scored two goals and Andrej Sekera added a marker in regulation for Edmonton.
“We have to find a way to get some security with the lead. We didn’t do that again tonight,” Kronwall said.
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