'Yotes Notes: 'Unfortunate' Goal in OT Spoils Comeback

SAN JOSE --The Coyotes rallied to earn a point at SAP Center on Saturday night, but discussing the one they didn't earn after a wild 6-5 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks was a tough task.
"It sucks," Derek Stepan told reporters. "We get beat by a bounce off our own skate ... I thought we did a good job in overtime possessing the puck, but we didn't really bring anything to the net. They capitalized. Three-on-three hockey's entertaining for a reason. It doesn't take much to get a scoring chance, and they were able to capitalize on it. We walk away with a point. We came into a tough building and we did a lot of really good things tonight ... I just thought that we were closer to (playing) that 60-minute hockey game that we're always talking about."
The Coyotes trailed 4-3 after two periods, but took the lead by scoring twice within a three-minute span early in the third period. A goal by San Jose's Joonas Donskoi with 16 seconds left denied Arizona a regulation win and sent the game to overtime.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic was credited with scoring the game-winning goal at 2:42 of overtime. Replays showed Coyotes forward Christian Dvorak inadvertently knocked the loose puck in the crease across the goal line with his right skate while attempting to help goalie Scott Wedgewood defend the net after Wedgewood blocked a shot by Joe Pavelski.
"Probably the best word to describe the game is unfortunate," said Wedgewood, who stopped 38 of 44 shots. " ... I was able to make the save and I saw Pavelski look up and I knew the puck was still around me. I kicked my legs out and they had two guys coming in hard and it glanced off of Dvorak's skate."

• Trailing 4-3, Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored a goal at 3:31 of the third period with a shot taken just inside the blue line. The goal was the 95th of Ekman-Larsson's career and it moved him into a tie for second place with Dave Ellett on the Coyotes/Jets franchise list for goals scored by a defenseman. Teppo Numminen tops that list with 108 goals.
• Josh Archibald scored for a second consecutive game at 6:22 of the third period to give Arizona a 5-4 lead. Archibald has notched three goals in nine games since joining the Coyotes last month, and now has six goals in 23 NHL games.
• Dvorak, who assisted on both of Arizona's goals in the third period, stretched his assist streak to three games.
• Zac Rinaldo returned to the lineup after serving a six-game suspension handed down by the NHL on Dec. 27. Rinaldo skated 15:06 and delivered a game-high six hits.
• Playing in his second game since being acquired via trade with Chicago, Richard Panik assisted on Arizona's first goal. It was his first point with his new team.
• With the loss, Arizona dropped to 0-6-2 in the second game of back-to-back games this season.
"It was a scrambley game at both ends," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "It was a little bit of a river hockey game and we were just trying to get back to our structure. I thought we got better as the game went on, but we couldn't hold on again."