Coyotes Rally with 5 Straight Goals, Top Avs 5-4 in Overtime

STATS

Trailing the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 in the second period on Wednesday, the Arizona Coyotes appeared to be in a similar position as they were on Saturday against their Central Division rival -- with one exception:

This time, they had Mullett magic on their side.

Jack McBain scored the overtime winner with 20 seconds left, Sean Durzi, Jason Zucker, Michael Kesselring, and Lawson Crouse also scored, and the Coyotes (18-14-2) rallied from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Avalanche 5-4 on Wednesday at Mullett Arena. Karel Vejmelka made 20 saves – including several key stops in the third period and overtime – to earn his fourth straight win.

Durzi finished with four points, setting a new single-game career high, and joined Shayne Gostisbehere, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Alex Goligoski as the only Coyotes defensemen in the last 10 years to record three or more points in a single frame.

Arizona fell to Colorado 4-1 in Denver on Saturday, and trailed 4-1 after two again on Wednesday. This time, though, Kesselring, Zucker, Durzi, and McBain scored to cap a furious rally at 'The Mullett,' where the Coyotes are 12-5-0 this season.

“It was a good character win,” McBain said. “It was the same situation in Colorado, tougher outcome, but they’re a really good team, and going down 4-0 to them is a tough thing to come back from. We stuck in there, Veggie played great, and obviously it was an amazing comeback.”

The Coyotes’ 12 wins at Mullett Arena are tied for the third-most home wins in the NHL, and it marks their second-best start at home in Coyotes team history, behind only the 2009-10 team.

Mikko Rantanen, Jonathan Drouin, Logan O’Connor, and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche (21-11-3), who lost for the first time in three games. Alexandar Georgiev made 22 saves in the loss, and is now 1-0-2 against the Coyotes this season.

The two teams will face each other once more, on Feb. 18 at Ball Arena in Denver.

Arizona started strong, outshooting Colorado 9-6 in the first period, but Rantanen opened the scoring late in the frame with a power-play goal at 18:16. MacKinnon notched the primary assist, marking his 19th straight game with at least one point, and gave the Avs a 1-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Colorado broke through with three goals in the second, including MacKinnon’s 5-on-3 tally that made it 4-0 with 6:34 to play in the frame. Vejmelka was perfect from there, though, and Crouse scored a critical goal at 16:31 to send the Coyotes into the second intermission down 4-1.

“We had a bad start to our second, but other than that, I think we did a lot of good things in that game,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We kept pushing and we went a little bit more inside in the third, and we scored a big goal.”

Kesselring made it a two-goal game at 3:48 of the third with his fourth of the season, wristing a shot top shelf past Georgiev, and Zucker cut it to one just over three minutes later with a backhand far-post after wrapping around the net.

Zucker finished with a goal and an assist, recording his second multi-point game with Arizona. 

“I was just trying to get something around the net,” Zucker said of his goal. “I knew [Liam O’Brien] was around the net, and [Logan Cooley] was lurking too, and I thought I had a step on my guy. I just wanted to get the puck on the net, and it happened to go in for me.”

Durzi tied it up with Vejmelka out for an extra attacker, firing a wrist shot from the blue line that found its way up-and-over Georgiev, setting up McBain’s overtime heroics.

“Zucks had a good shot on net, and I just went there hard and got a piece of it on my stick,” McBain said. “It was a greasy one, but I’ll take it.”

Vejmelka, meanwhile, has won four straight games for the first time in his career.

“He was the MVP for us tonight,” Zucker said. “He was incredible. He made unbelievable saves that kept us in that game, and ultimately helped us win with some big saves in overtime. He was huge.”

The win marked the Coyotes’ second come-from-behind win of three-or-more goals in their last four games, following a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 19.

They have now won five of their last six games, and will open a five-game homestand following their trip to Anaheim on Friday.

“There’s no quit in our group,” Tourigny said. “It starts with the leadership on down. The boys have a lot of pride, and they compete every day. It’s practice, game, whatever. That’s their DNA. That’s the way they play, and that’s why we love them so much. They never quit.”

Arizona is back in action on Friday at Anaheim, marking one road game before opening a five-game homestand. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on the following networks:

WHERE TO WATCH:
• Antenna: 61.1 Phoenix, 9.2 Tucson
• Phoenix Cable: Cox 95
• Phoenix Satellite: DirecTV Channel 61, Dish Network Channel 61
• Bullhead City / Lake Havasu: Optimum channel 6
• Flagstaff: American Cable channel 4, Optimum Cable channel 6
• Maricopa: Orbitel channel 11
• Pinal County: Mediacom channel 13
• Prescott: Sparklight channel 61
• Sedona: Optimum Cable channel 6
• Show Low / Winslow Sparklight channel 61
• Tucson: Cox channel 85, Xfinity channel 1179, Orbitel channel 208
WHERE TO LISTEN:
• Radio: KTAR News 92.3 FM
• Stream: Arizona Coyotes App, NHL Mobile App