'Yotes Notes: Keller Sets Rookie Record for Goals in a Season

TAMPA BAY --Clayton Keller notched his 23rd goal on Monday night during Arizona's 4-1 win over Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena to set a Coyotes record for goals in a season by a rookie.

Keller scored his record-setting goal into Tampa Bay's empty net with just 7.4 seconds left in the game, breaking Peter Mueller's mark, which stood for nearly 10 seasons. Ironically, it was the flashy rookie's first empty-netter in the NHL.

"We knew coming into tonight it was going to be a tough game," said Keller, who took a career-high nine shots on goal. "It's good to see us bounce back from two nights ago (a loss at Florida), and it was cool to get the goal ... I think we're trying to treat every game like a playoff game and we kind of get up for that. We just want to come out and finish the year strong and hopefully bring something home for next year."
Earlier in the game, Keller assisted on Jakob Chychrun's goal late in the second period to extend his point streak to a career-high nine games, and to reach 60 points for the season.
"Obviously he had a great start, but the last 20 games I've really liked his play," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "He's engaged. He wants the puck. Great players want the puck, they want to be in those situations. He's doing that."

• Trevor Murphy tallied his first NHL goal in just his second NHL game.
Murphy scored his goal with a slap shot from just outside the left circle at 10:45 of the second period. It gave Arizona a 1-0 lead and helped set the tone for a convincing victory over the Eastern Conference's top team.

"It's been an emotional ride throughout my junior career and pro career," Murphy said. "This is pretty special for my family and myself ... The puck just came around (the boards) and took a good angle," Murphy said. "I like those one-timers off the boards. Luckily, it found the cage."

• Brendan Perlini ended a 16-game goal-scoring drought when he notched his 17th goal of the season from between the circles at 10:28 of the third period. The goal was waved off at first because a referee ruled Nick Cousins interfered with Tampa Bay goalie Louis Domingue. The Coyotes challenged the ruling and won.
• Antti Raanta stopped 19 of 20 shots to earn his 18th win of the season. Raanta is 10-2-1 in his past 13 games, and his 2.34 goals-against ranks fourth in the NHL among goalies who've played at least 40 games.
Raanta made his best save at 1:57 of the third period when he blocked a point-blank shot by Ondrej Palat from the low slot.
"We played so good in the first two periods, so we didn't want to change anything," Raanta said. "I think that we were still pushing hard in the third period. You know a team that's losing 2-0 is going to make a push, so you just need to make the push also and I think we weathered the storm and it was good ... Everybody was dialed in today to play the game. That's a really good thing. That's how we have been playing almost all of 2018."

• The Coyotes improved to 2-2-0 on a six-game road trip that continues at Vegas on Wednesday and ends at Los Angeles on Thursday. They also improved to 6-0-2 in games played on Monday this season.
"I thought we played well," Tocchet said. "I don't think we had a passenger tonight. I was kind of hard on them in practice the other day and they responded ... They stuck to the game plan and played a good 60 minutes."