Vejmelka, Coyotes blank Canes, 4-0

In Ral3igh, the Arizona Coyotes’ Karel Vejmelka made 36 saves in a 4-0 shutout of the of the Hurricanes on Wednesday night.“It feels better and better every game, especially if they’re shutouts,” Vejmelka said. “It’s always better to get more shots. I just focused on every shot. We did a really good job on the rebounds. We played really good defensively.”

It was the fourth straight loss for the Canes.

Nick Schmaltz scored in the first period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

Vejmelka made that stand up until the third period when the Coyotes hit for three more goals.

“We played with a desperation,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “We took pride in our defense, and that paid off I think. Not saying that was an easy shutout, I don’t mean that at all. [Vejmelka] was unbelievable. He had a team in front of him with an urgency to defend. That was cool to see.”

Arizona’s Lawson Crouse hit for a double in the third period.

The Coyotes improved to 7-9-2.

“We gave up one shot through [20] minutes. That’s pretty good, but (we) don’t score,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You have to come away with something when you do that because they’re going to come back and play. We’ve got to find a way to cash in when we have the empty nets. It’s too hard to score in this league.”

Nick Bjugstad also scored in the third for the Coyotes.

Carolina dropped to 10-6-4.

“At some point we’ve got to have some emotion and get going and really start pushing each other,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “Something’s got to change. We kind of felt like the puck wasn’t going in, and we kind of just slowly faded away.”

Crouse hit for empty-net goal in the third with just under three minutes left in the period for the 4-0 final.

“We started playing more to our identity in the second period,” Crouse said. “They’re always sending it around, getting it to the [defense], quick shots. We talked about what we had to clean up and went out there and did our best. Obviously, in the third, it paid off for us.”

Pyotr Kochetkov made 23 saves in the Canes loss.