'Yotes Notes: Keller Ends Goal-Scoring Drought

GLENDALE --Coyotes rookie Clayton Keller ended a 17-game goal-scoring drought on Thursday night vs. Tampa Bay at Gila River Arena.
Trailing 3-0, Keller wristed a shot from the right circle past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy during a power play at 11:29 of the second period. The goal was Keller's first since Nov. 6.

"I'm not really focused on my performance," said Keller, who leads the Coyotes with 12 goals. "It's a team game and we lost tonight so (the goal) doesn't really matter to me."

Keller began the season by scoring 11 goals in his first 16 games and was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for October. With 24 points, he ranks third among all NHL rookies behind Vancouver's Brock Boeser (29) and Mathew Barzal (28) of the New York Islanders.
"He's been passing up a lot of shots," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said when asked about Keller's goal-scoring slump. "His game's been off just a little bit sometimes. I think tonight, he was one of our better, positive guys. He shot the puck ... Hopefully this will loosen him up. I thought it was a positive game for him."
• Tocchet didn't see many other positives in the loss, Arizona's fifth in a row.
"We just looked tired," Tocchet said. "We weren't sharp at all, we were dull. We did a lot of, I hate using the word dumb, but we did some dumb things out there because we looked tired. I don't know if it was the road trip or a bunch of stuff we've been doing. I don't know what it is, but some guys just kind of gave in. They are a hell of a hockey team. At the beginning, they were just kind of moseying into the game and we didn't sense that and say, 'Hey, let's jump on it.' That's what is disappointing."

• Antti Raanta made a career-high 44 saves to keep the Coyotes within striking distance for most of the game.
"We knew we were going to play against a good team with a lot of offense and we didn't stick to the game plan, and if it wasn't for Raanta it could've been 7-1 or 8-1," Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. "We have a lot of stuff that we need to work on."
Raanta was looking to beat Tampa Bay for the third time in four tries as an NHLer, but the Lightning peppered him with 48 shots.
"They have lots of firepower there and they brought everybody to the ice today and we didn't," Raanta said. "That's pretty much the game in short version."
• The Coyotes held Tampa Bay to 1 for 3 on the power play. That's not bad considering the Lightning entered the game with the NHL's most productive power-play unit.
Vladimir Namestnikov scored the power-play goal when he poked the rebound of a great paddle save made by Raanta into the net at 11:30 of the first period.

"It's a great challenge," Raanta said of defending Tampa Bay's power-play attack. "I love to be in net when there are so good players playing against you. I almost got that one (goal), but when the bounces are going your way, they're going your way. I think we did a pretty good job in PK."

• Derek Stepan assisted on Keller's goal to extend his point streak at Gila River Arena to six games.
• The Coyotes won 56 percent of the face-offs. Stepan led the way by winning 11 of 16 draws, and Dylan Strome won 11 of 19 draws.
• Jakob Chychrun skated 21:48 and blocked two shots in his first home game of the season. The young defenseman played his first four games on the road after recovering from off-season knee surgery.

• Zac Rinaldo did not play because of illness. He was replaced in the lineup by Nick Cousins, who fought Chris Kunitz in the third period. That was one of two bouts in the game. The other pitted Brad Richardson vs. Brayden Point.