The Wrap: Keller Records Three-Point Night but Arizona Falls 5-3

Final Score: Oilers 5, Coyotes 3

Arizona suffered its first regulation defeat in four games when the visiting Edmonton Oilers beat the Coyotes 5-3 on Wednesday night at Gila River Arena. Clayton Keller registered a goal and two assists and Shayne Gostisbehere scored to reach 15 points on the campaign, but the Oilers' top line of Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Zack Kassian led the visitors past the Coyotes.
"I actually thought we started good, I thought we had a pretty good first period there," said Travis Boyd. "I don't know, something flipped, I guess, either for them or for us going into the second. I don't think we stuck with our game and it got a little away from us."
The scoring began when Phil Kessel pounced on a loose puck and slid it over to Keller who buried a shot on a breakaway for his fifth goal of the season. Later on an Antoine Roussel roughing penalty put the Oilers on the power play, and McDavid capitalized to tie the game at 1-1.

The Oilers took a 2-1 lead around the midway point of the second period when Draisaitl jumped on a rebound and ripped a shot that beat Scott Wedgewood short side. Wedgewood made 12 saves in the second period to keep the Coyotes within striking distance, including robbing Kassian from nine feet out off a 2-on-1 feed from McDavid.

"It's tough, but you know you have to play a strong team game, and like I was talking about a little bit, we lost it there for a good, I would say, 30 minutes of the game," said Anton Stralman. "In the middle there where we kind of lost it a little bit. We weren't on top as much as we wanted to, especially on those guys, we gave them some more time and space, and when they have that, they're very hard to defend. And that was the plan, we tried to stay on top of them as much as we could, play strong defense, everybody on the right side. But, for a good amount of time there in that game we lost it a little bit, and they took advantage."
The scoring came in bunches in the third period, beginning with Kassian and Draisaitl tallying a goal apiece to put Edmonton up 4-1. Arizona stormed back, beginning with Boyd redirecting a Jakob Chychrun shot that slipped past Edmonton's Mikko Koskinen. 1:23 later, Gostisbehere made it a 4-3 game with a goal off turnaround shot from the left faceoff circle.

However, Edmonton iced the game with an empty-net goal courtesy of McDavid as the Oilers snapped the Coyotes' four-game point streak and won the game by a 5-3 score.
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The Game:

First Period (ARI 1, EDM 1):Clayton Keller (5), assisted by Phil Kessel (7) at 3:45. /// Connor McDavid (13), assisted by Leon Draisaitl (19) and Tyson Barrie (7) at 14:58.
Second Period (EDM 2, ARI 1):Leon Draisaitl (19), assisted by Zack Kassian (3) and Codi Ceci (5) at 10:53.
Third Period (EDM 5, ARI 3): Zack Kassian (4), assisted by Leon Draisaitl (20) and Connor McDavid (21) at 7:45. /// Leon Draisaitl (20), assisted by Connor McDavid (22) and Tyson Barrie (8) at 13:08. /// Travis Boyd (4), assisted by Jakob Chychrun (4) and Clayton Keller (7) at 13:34. /// Shayne Gostisbehere (3), assisted by Clayton Keller (8). /// Connor McDavid (14), assisted by Zack Kassian (4) at 19:32.
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Statistics:
SOG: ARI - 27, EDM - 44
PP:ARI - 0/2, EDM - 2/4
Hits: ARI - 22, EDM - 19
Blocks: ARI - 8, EDM - 7

Tourigny's Take: "I like the fight in our guys. It would have been easy for one to close the door. We're in a tough stretch, I won't lie, and I'm not looking for excuses, but we can feel guys are a little bit tired. You know how we practice and yesterday the practice was - the boys were tired. I never not once this year had to address the effort of our guys or whatever, and again tonight, they fought hard, and they battled, so I'm proud of them. But we're in a tough, tough stretch right now. They need to rest a little bit."
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Travis Boyd said: "I think for us it's maybe about learning how as a group we are going to win games. Maybe we're not going to be the team that's going to go out there and score six or seven goals every night. So, we've got to make sure that we're dialed in defensively for 60 minutes and we're playing a hard game. I guess kind of more of a blue-collar game."
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Notable:

• Clayton Keller extended his point streak to four games (2-5-7 in that span), tying Phil Kessel for the longest by a Coyote this season.
• Keller's three points represented his 40th career multi-point game and his eighth career three-point game - pacing the Coyotes in both categories since the start of 2017-18.
• Kessel assisted on Keller's goal to maintain his career point per game scoring line against Edmonton (11-15-26 in 26 GP).
• Shayne Gostisbehere scored his third goal of the season, which was his 15th point. He is the ninth defenseman (16th instance) in franchise history to reach 15 points within the team's first 20 games of a season.
• Travis Boyd scored for the second consecutive game and has four points (2-2-4) in his last four games.
• Scott Wedgewood played in his 50th career game.
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Coyotes Lineup:
Forwards
Keller - Boyd - Kessel
Crouse - Dzingel - Galchenyuk
Roussel - Hayton - Eriksson
O'Brien - Jeník - Fasching

Defensemen
Chychrun - Lyubushkin
Gostisbehere - Mayo
Capobianco - Strålman

Scratches
Dineen
Beagle
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Roster Notes: Forward Jay Beagle missed his first game of the season and is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Defenseman Anton Stralman returned to action after missing four games due to a lower-body injury, replacing Cam Dineen in the lineup.
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What's Next: Arizona resumes its two-game homestand with a Saturday (Nov. 27) night contest with the Dallas Stars. Puck drop against the Stars is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Bally Sports Arizona+ and KTAR 92.3 FM.
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Photo of the Game:Assistant Athletic Trainer Donnie Fuller is presented with a commemorative jersey for working his 1,500th NHL game on Wednesday night.

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