'Yotes Notes: Raanta's One Mistake Proves Costly vs. Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS --Antti Raanta gave up just one goal on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena, but lost a goaltending duel with Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Raanta, playing his first game since Nov. 22 after sitting out seven because of an upper-body injury, stopped 33 of 34 shots.

Raanta's lone gaffe came just 30 seconds into the game when he let a shot by Josh Anderson - the first one he faced - slip past him and into the net.
"It was a big mistake from me and that was it," Raanta said. "That was the game-deciding goal so it's tough to take. A 1-0 loss is always tough to take, but at least we kept fighting. We almost came back. We had good chances. It was good to see that we bounced back from that Boston game."

The Bruins beat Arizona, 6-1, on Thursday, but the Coyotes were a much stingier team on Saturday. Raanta played the key role in the strong defense.
"A little bit too many rebounds, but I felt it was better and better when the game was going on," Raanta said of his performance. "But you have to be ready when the puck drops and you have to make that save. Even though there was lots of good things, everybody remembers the one goal in this game and you're responsible for that. It's frustrating … I went down and I thought I had all the angles covered, but he shot past me, far side. I need to make that save. It's pretty simple."
Head Coach Rick Tocchet praised Raanta for how he responded to the goal he allowed.
"He played really well," Tocchet said. "Obviously, the first one he'd like to have back, but after that I think he was pretty solid. It was a great goaltending duel. Both goalies played well."

• Bobrovsky stopped all 35 shots the Coyotes took, including four each by Brendan Perlini and Jakob Chychrun.
"We played hard," Tocchet said. "We had some chances to win the game ... They're a good team. Bobrovsky is a hell of a goalie ... They played a good defensive game. You've got to give them credit."
• Raanta was sidelined for two weeks and a day after colliding with San Jose's Logan Couture and suffering an upper-body injury on Nov. 22. On Saturday, he absorbed a similar hit in the crease by Matt Calvert early in the second period. Raanta was not fazed by the collision with Calvert and didn't miss a beat.
"I think that was just a hockey play," Raanta said. "…It wasn't that bad. I kind of was anticipating that so it was a little easier to take."
Nevertheless, Max Domi took exception to Calvert's hit on Raanta, and he and Calvert swapped some pushes and shoves later in the period.
"That's what we need," Raanta said. "We need to have heart in our game. Sometimes you need to push your limits a little bit. I'm not saying you need to fight, but the whole team needs to be like that. You can't have any passengers on this team. If we want to win we need everybody in there. Max was showing heart there."
• Trailing 1-0, the Coyotes received a break when Artemi Panarin was called for hooking and high sticking Oliver Ekman-Larsson with 2:53 left in the third period. Arizona nearly tied the score on the ensuing power play when Clayton Keller, seeking his first goal since Nov. 6, hit the crossbar with a shot with 2:18 left.
"The first part of that power play we were a little bit sluggish, but at the end, when we got set up, we had some Grade A chances," Domi said. "Keller hit the crossbar there. That could have easily gone in ... I thought, for the most part, honestly, we outplayed them. It would have been nice if we got a couple of goals on the power play."

• Jason Demers left the game briefly after he was hit in the throat by the puck early in the third period.
• With the loss, Arizona dropped to 4-12-4 in 20 road games, the most in the NHL.
• The Coyotes will play their 21st road game on Sunday at Chicago. Scott Wedgewood is expected to start in goal.
• Prior to Saturday's game, Arizona announced it had assigned goalie Marek Langhamer to Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga.
Langhamer, a Czech Republic native who played one game for the Coyotes this season vs. Vegas on Nov. 25, was the third-string goalie for Arizona's American Hockey League affiliate in Tucson behind Adin Hill and Hunter Miska.
"Marek is heading back to the Czech Republic to get consistent starts and to continue to grow his game," General Manager John Chayka said. "It speaks to the depth of our pipeline of good young goalies as we seek to develop the next wave of Coyotes goalies."