Recap: Coyotes Can't Finish Rally vs. Bruins

GLENDALE --Brad Richardson scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season on Saturday night in Arizona's 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at Gila River Arena.
The Coyotes fell behind 2-0 before the game was three minutes old and couldn't fully recover. Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Jake DeBrusk scored rebound goals 93 seconds apart for Boston, which extended its winning streak over the Coyotes to 13 games. Arizona/Phoenix has not defeated the Bruins since Oct. 9, 2010 in Prague, Czech Republic.

"We talked about having a good start and obviously we didn't come out the way we wanted," captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. "We got down with two goals pretty quick there, and it's tough to get back into it in this league if you come out like that."
Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves in his sixth consecutive start for Arizona, and Jaroslav Halak stopped all but one of 33 shots for the Bruins. Halak thwarted Michael Grabner's bid for yet another short-handed goal at 2:43 of the second period. Later, with the Coyotes skating six-on-four on a power-play within the game's final minute, Halak made four more saves to secure the victory.
• Boston's Matt Grzelcyk briefly made the score 3-0 at 17:26 of the first period, but Tocchet challenged the goal citing goaltender interference. After video review, the goal was disallowed.
• Richardson drove the net and scored his goal, backdoor tap-in style, off a nice pass from Vinnie Hinostroza at 9:10 of the second period.

"The first period we weren't ready to go," said Richardson, who has already doubled his goal production from last season in just 19 games. "We weren't strong on pucks, we weren't finishing checks and it ended up costing us the game ... We started engaging in the game (in the second period). We came out and talked about it, and we battled back and had a great second. But at the end, you're looking for a bounce, and we didn't get it."

• The Coyotes held Boston to just three shots on goal in the middle 20 minutes. They took 11.
"We had a great second period," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "We had our chances to get the equalizer. We had a bunch of chances, we just didn't score."

• Arizona played minus starting goalie Antti Raanta, and defensemen Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers and Jakob Chychrun, all of whom are injured.
"Every team has injuries," Richardson said. "You look at their roster, way more banged up than I think we were. So, definitely a game I think in my opinion we should have beat them. We should have been ready to go, and they're on a back-to-back, as well."
• Dakota Mermis skated 11:20 in his season debut. The Coyotes recalled Mermis on Thursday for defensive depth. Mermis, who is the team captain of Arizona's American Hockey League affiliate in Tucson, played nine games for the Coyotes last season.
• Stats that jump off the Event Summary: Grabner took a team-high four shots on goal, Derek Stepan won 12 of 19 face-offs, and Ilya Lyubushkin played a career-high 18:45 and blocked four shots.

• Craig Janney, who played 145 games for the Coyotes from 1996-98, dropped the ceremonial first puck. He's the latest former Coyotes player to drop the first puck at a home game this season on the nights the Coyotes wear their retro black uniforms. Jeremy Roenick, Zbynek Michalek and Greg Adams also have dropped first pucks.