Coyotes 'Get it Done,' Series Now 2-1

Spectacular goaltending, timely goals, and a steadfast approach to a 'never-say-die' defense resulted Saturday in a potential series-saving Coyotes victory.
Arizona clawed its way to a 4-2 win in Game 3. The series now stands 2-1.
The Coyotes blocked 27 shots. Darcy Kuemper made a career-high 49 saves.
"That's who we are, that's our identity," said Derek Stepan, who blocked a team-high four shots. "We have to play that way.
"We're finding ways to get it done. And at this time of year, nothing matters but the end result. We got a win, we're down two games to one. We focus our energy on Game 4."

Stepan gave the Coyotes their first lead of the series early in the first period. Clayton Keller prevented a Colorado breakout attempt and forced an Avalanche turnover before finding Stepan with a pass from below the goal-line. Stepan beat Pavel Francouz from the top of the crease.

Francouz, named the Game 3 starter, finished with 19 saves on 21 shots. Philipp Grubauer started the first two games.
Colorado evened the score, 1-1, in the latter half of the second period, courtesy of a fortuitous bounce off Alex Goligoski's shin pad, as the Coyote defenseman attempted to block an Andre Burakovsky shot from the point.
Brad Richardson scored a gigantic go-ahead goal with under a minute to play in the second when he connected with a wrist shot from the left dot, after receiving a pass from Conor Garland.

"Big timing on the goal," Richardson said. "They kind of got a fluky one on that PK. It hit a shin pad and went in. So, it was nice for us going into the third. They've had a lead a lot in the series, so it was nice of us to have that lead. We were able to lock it down a little bit in the third."
But Colorado kept coming in that period. The Coyotes weathered the attack, forcing the Avalanche to pull Francouz for an extra attacker with less than three minutes remaining.
Taylor Hall scored into an empty net with 1:20 to play to make it 3-1, but the Avalanche responded seconds later to again make it a one-goal game, 3-2. Lawson Crouse secured the victory with an empty net goal with five seconds left.

"That was a stress reliever to get that empty net," head coach Rick Tocchet said. "Even (after) Crouse scored with five seconds left, I was still stressed. That team, they're a dangerous team. I'm proud of the way the guys hung in there. Kuemps again was the first star for us. But we're going to have to make some plays and we're going to have to tilt the ice a little bit to the other side if we're going to get back in this thing."
Kuemper's career-high 49 saves give him a total of 263, No. 1 in these playoffs. He owns a .933 save percentage and a 2.70 goals-against average.
"I'm just trying to go out there and take it one shot at a time and focus on the next save," Kuemper said. "I'm not really getting caught up in what's going on. Today, we did a really good job at defending. But I feel we do that every night. It makes my job a lot easier. We really defend well as a unit. Everyone buys in, and it makes it a lot easier to see the puck and focus on making the first save."
Stepan wasn't surprised by Kuemper's performance.
"We've been talking about him all playoffs long," Stepan said. "He's been absolutely lights-out. In those moments where we need a key save, he's gotten every single one. We wouldn't be in this position without him, and obviously we need him to continue to do that."

Coyotes got the result they wanted, but Tocchet is pleased that his team knows they'll need to even be better.
"Guys said 'Good win,' but they know they have to play better, and I like that," Tocchet said. "It's not like we're sitting here patting each other on the back. I think we have to get better if we're going to get back in this thing. We all know that. The temperature of our team, I do like the fact that they know they have to be better to win the next game.
"This is a big win for us. It'll relax some guys, number one. It's the playoffs, anything can happen. We keep talking about that. You just don't know what will happen and you have to be ready for it. We talk about opportunity, and we just gave ourselves another opportunity by winning this game. We've got to win three games, they've got to win two."

Lead Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick - NHLI via Getty Images // Second Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick - NHLI via Getty Images // Third Photo Credit: Andy Devlin - NHLI via Getty Images // Footer Photo Credit: Dave Sandford - NHLI via Getty Images