In Edmonton, Oscar Klefbom scored with less than a minute gone in extra time to give the Oilers a 4-3 win over the resurgent Arizona Coyotes.
“It was a big win, but we have to find a way to close the game earlier,” Klefbom said. “We’ve had a number of these games where we’re up two goals and we can’t really find a way to close the game. They get the first one and build off that and then they tie it. It’s not good enough, especially against teams like Arizona. We should be able to close the game earlier.”
The story of late is the Coyotes’ string of success since the first of the year.
Over their 12 games, they have recorded an 8-2-2 record and have improved their overall record to 20-34-11.
“I thought we played good. There were about six or seven minutes in the first period that I didn’t like it, but I thought we battled back,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. “That’s something we’ve been building on the last six or seven weeks. We didn’t like our last 10 minutes [of first period], but after that, they had two shots 5-on-5 in the second and I thought we had some chances. It was a good game.”
Jason Demers, Christian Dvorak and Niklas Hjalmarsson struck for the Coyotes.
“It’s a big difference from the beginning of the season. We have a totally different confidence and just a different feel in the group,” Hjalmarsson said. “We trust each other a bit more and we have two great goalies in the net. So, it doesn’t matter who’s in the net, we know we’re going to have a great effort in the back and it’s always a great feeling for a defenseman to know that.”
Cam Talbot made 32 saves to pick up the win for the Oilers.
Jujhar Khaira, Milan Lucic and Jesse Puljujarvi scored foe Oilers in regulation.
For Lucic, it was his fist goal since late December.
“It was nice to have one finally go in,” Lucic said. “It was one of those ones where you aren’t thinking and just shoot it as hard as you can and it finds a way in just inside the post. It was nice to get that one and to get a win at home.”
[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Oilers highlights]
Darcy Kuemper made 32 saves in taking the loss.
“We started to play our game in the last 40 minutes,” Dvorak said. “I thought the first 10 minutes were pretty good and the last 10 minutes we fell asleep there and they got three goals. It was good resiliency by our group there.”
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