In Tempe, Karel Vejmelka made 33 saves and the Arizona Coyotes shut out the St Louis Blues, 5-0, on Thursday night. 
Nick Schmaltz scored twice in the second to give the Coyotes a 2-0 lead, he finished a natural hat trick with an early goal in the third period for a 3-0 advantage to the Coyotes.
“It’s pretty cool,” Schmaltz said. “It’s always fun when you can score and contribute to a big win like that. It was a lot of fun out there and yeah, I’m happy to get the first `hatty.'”
The Coyotes moved to 16-28-5.
“Two turnovers in the second period, and it’s in our net,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “The third period we come out and get scored on, on the first shift, with five veteran players on the ice. Game’s over.”
It was Schmaltz’s first career NHL hat trick.
“‘Schmaltzy’ was really, really good,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “We played the right way; we played good defensively and we had great goaltending. St. Louis is dangerous on the rush, and we defended the rush pretty well. And we had an effort from everybody.”
The Blues dropped to 23-23-3.
The Blues have lost three straight, all to teams with less than stellar records.
“Those are three teams where, if you look at the schedule, and with all due respect to every team — anybody can beat anyone — those are the games that you have to play better in and get points,” Schenn said. “To come away with zero points it’s obviously tough, and now you find yourself digging a hole again.”
Travis Boyd and Barrett Hayton added single markers for the Coyotes in the third period for the 5-0 final.
Lawson Crouse Matias Maccelli returned to the Arizona lineup.
“Honestly, it was good to have some guys back in the lineup, two really good players who give us balance and more pace in our game, and shorter shifts for everybody,” Tourigny said. “It changes a lot of things, but the most important thing was our mindset right from the beginning.”
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Thomas Greiss made 21 saves in the St Louis loss.
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