Coyotes Game 18 Recap: Coyotes beat Red Wings in OT, extend point streak to three games

After one of the worst starts in the history of the NHL, the Coyotes have points in their last three games.

Game Recap

At the start of the season, it looked like the Arizona Coyotes would need to be perfect to win any games. Unfortunately, they aren’t the most skilled team and don’t have much margin of error in games.

But the Arizona Coyotes were far from perfect tonight and still managed to walk away with a win. It’s just their third win of the season and the first time they have won in overtime.

Things started somewhat okay for the Coyotes in that they were doing a good job in limiting the Detroit Red Wings’ chances. They had an early power play, which they did not score on, and struggled to generate any consistent offense or threaten netminder Alex Nedeljkovic.

Detroit didn’t have a shot on goal until midway through the period, but they made it count.

It was a reasonably innocent error, one that we saw a few times throughout the game. The Coyotes converged on the puck that shot up into the air and into the Coyotes’ zone. Usually, that’s not a problem, but Dylan Larkin was able to pick up the loose puck and was all alone with Scott Wedgewood. He scored, and it was a 1-0 game.

The period ended with the Coyotes down 1-0, a tough start but far from an insurmountable deficit.

Arizona didn’t have much luck in the second, getting pretty badly outshot throughout. Two almost back-to-back penalties certainly didn’t help, and Wedgewood had to come out with some big saves to keep the Coyotes in the game.

The refs put the whistles away for the third, but the Coyotes still had problems solving Nedeljkovic. Arizona had gotten a few good looks, but Nedeljkovic stood tall and kept the Desert Dogs off the scoresheet for most of the game.

But, with less than seven minutes to go, the Coyotes won an offensive zone faceoff and got the puck back to Cam Dineen at the point. Dineen fired the puck on net, only for Ryan Dzingel to redirect the shot past Nedeljkovic and into the back of the net.

With the score tied, the Coyotes didn’t let up on the gas. Arizona had a few good looks as regulation expired and overtime began.

The Coyotes had already continued their point streak, but it didn’t take them too long to get the winner. Twenty-two seconds into the three-on-three, Clayton Keller circled behind the net and picked up a Jakob Chychrun pass to fire the puck into a wide-open net. The Coyotes’ point streak continued to three games, and they got their third win of the season.

It was far from a perfect game. The Coyotes probably took too many penalties, fell apart in the second, and had trouble in the offensive zone. But given the team we saw at the start of the season, it’s nice to see them get a win in a game where they didn’t play perfectly.

Lines

Three Stars

1. Clayton Keller – Game-winning goal
2. Dylan Larkin – 1 goal
3. Ryan Dzingel – 1 goal

Stray Thought

• For Hockey Fights Cancer night, the Coyotes had Matt Shott drop the first puck. Matt is currently battling cancer and was actually writing for Five For Howling when I first started. Matt has done so much for hockey in Arizona, and it was great to see him recognized before the game.

Next Game

The Coyotes are back in action tomorrow on the road as they face off against the Los Angeles Kings at 8:00 pm Arizona time.