Coyotes Close Out Homestand with Shootout Win over Kraken

STATS

Nick Bjugstad's shootout moves pair perfectly with Mullett Arena.

They're pure magic.

Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, and Clayton Keller scored, Nick Bjugstad scored the shootout winner, and Connor Ingram made 35 saves as the Arizona Coyotes closed out their homestand with a 4-3 shootout win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.

Eeli Tolvanen, Justin Schultz, and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken (4-6-3), who dropped their second straight game. Joey Daccord made 24 saves in the loss, in what was his was his sixth start of the season.

Bjugstad scored the only goal in the shootout, and once Ingram turned aside Jordan Eberle's final attempt, Arizona (6-5-1) completed its 2-1-0 homestand with the win. Both Keller and Nick Schmaltz finished with two points on the night, marking their third-and-fourth multi-point games of the season, respectively.

The 31-year-old Bjugstad extended his career-best point streak to seven games with an assist on Maccelli's goal, and Tuesday marked his second shootout winner of the season following the Coyotes' season-opening 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 13.

"I don't want to give the secret away," Bjugstad said with a laugh. "It's working right now, so hopefully other goalies don't see this."

The Coyotes now hit the road for five straight games and will not play at home again until hosting the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 20.

That made Tuesday's win even sweeter as the team prepares to head out of town.

"Even when you don't have your A-game, you need to find a way, you need to crawl in, you need to find a way to dig deep, and I think we did that tonight," head coach André Tourigny said. "I won't pretend we played an excellent game, but we battled extremely hard and we crawled back, and our willingness to fight made the difference."

The game started fast and furious, as Tolvanen opened the scoring 40 seconds in by finishing a 2-on-0 with Yanni Gourde to give the Kraken an early 1-0 lead. Maccelli tied it up at 6:06 with his second of the season, using the defenseman as a screen before wristing at seeing-eye shot up and over Daccord’s blocker.

Hayton gave the Coyotes the lead with a power-play goal 3:59 into the second -- his first goal of the season. The goal was initially credited to Keller, but review showed Hayton redirected the puck off his stick while screening Daccord.

It was the 23-year-old forward's first goal -- and first point -- in 12 games this season.

"I'm a competitor, I want to score, I want to produce, without a doubt," Hayton said. "At the same time, you have to trust the process and stick with what you're doing. I feel like I can impact the game more than just scoring and producing on the scoresheet, but it was obviously nice to bury that one."

Tourigny has consistently praised Hayton throughout the start of the season highlighting the contributions the center brings to the team that don't show up in the box score.

"He battles hard, and he works hard, and he's part of our top line. Eventually, it will come," Tourigny said. "The points will come. It's not something I'm that concerned about, I just want to keep him confident and keep him grinding."

Schultz responded 58 seconds after Hayton's goal, and Schwartz gave the Kraken a 3-2 lead with their second power-play goal of the game at 1:16 of the third. Keller answered back with a power-play goal of his own just 42 seconds later to tie it up, though, and the teams went scoreless through the rest of the third period and overtime to set up Bjugstad and Ingram's heroics in the shootout.

Now, the Coyotes depart the desert with two wins in their last three games.

"It's huge," Bjugstad said. "You want to end on a good note at home, and you want to be hard to play against at home. Against a team like this -- it's a playoff team from last year and a very good team -- it's a big one."

The Coyotes hit the road for five games, beginning Thursday at St. Louis. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on the following networks:

WHERE TO WATCH:
• Antenna: 15.2 Phoenix, 9.2 Tucson, 15.2 Cottonwood/Prescott/Flagstaff/Lake Havasu/Kingman
• Phoenix Cable: Cox 95, Orbitel 200, Mediacom 107 (Pinal County)
• Tucson Cable: Cox 85, Xfinity 1179, Orbitel 208
• Flagstaff: American Cable channel 4
• Sedona: Optimum Cable channel 6
• Prescott: Cable One Prescott channel 61
WHERE TO LISTEN:
• Radio: ESPN 620 AM
• Streaming: Arizona Coyotes App, Arizona Sports App