"Our start was disappointing," said Devils interim head coach Travis Green. "I didn't like the first 10 to 12 minutes of our game. We didn't have our skating legs early enough, which resulted in taking some penalties in the offensive zone. We get down two and start to chase the game and push the game."
The first penalty of the game went to the Devils after Erik Haula tripped up Arizona's Travis Dermott nearly four minutes in.
Midway through the first, J.J. Moser fired a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle glove side past Devils goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen to put Arizona on the board first.
Arizona's first penalty came around 40 seconds later. Michael Kesselring was called for tripping. Devils generated some chances but were unable to convert.
Shortly after the penalty expired, Devils took their second two-minute minor of the game when Tomas Nosek was called for tripping. This time, Coyotes were able to convert.
Dylan Guenther ripped a shot from the left circle to put the home side up 2-0.
Late in the first, Arizona made it 3-0. Nick DeSimone turned the puck over to Lawson Crouse who dished it to Logan Cooley for the wide-open chance and he made no mistake.
Shots on goal after one were even at 15-15.
Nico Daws came in to start the second period for the Devils, replacing Kahkonen in goal.
Green talked about the decision to pull Kahkonen from the game.
"A lot of those goals were hard ones to stop," he said. "I thought maybe we'd get a spark by putting Daws in. We could have scored two, three or four goals but when you're chasing the game, it gets hard."
Devils finally got on the board seven minutes into the middle frame. DeSimone carried the puck into the Coyotes zone, dished the puck to Jack Hughes who then passed it to Lazar before getting it back to DeSimone for the tap-in and his first goal as a Devil.
"I kicked it out to Jack and went straight to the net. Lazar got it to me and luckily it went in," said DeSimone.
"We had a lot of good chances the rest of the way. Couldn't catch up," Green added.
Daws made his biggest stop of the afternoon midway through the second after denying Michael Carcone on a breakaway with a blocker save.
"He played well," Green said of Daws. "Made a couple big saves. We were getting outshot 11-5 after 12 minutes in the game and almost ended up with 40 shots at the end of the night. Our power play's got to find another way to score."
Daws, who found himself as the backup because the club wanted to give Jake Allen a full day off as he eased his way back into action, said he was as surprised as anyone to see himself back in game action.
"Unexpected, for sure, but it's my job to be ready to go. Whenever, wherever," Daws stated. "With three goalies, every time you get in you've got to give them a reason to want to put you back in. That's my goal every time.
"Felt good to be back at it. I'd been practicing a lot and I felt good."
Travis Dermott took a penalty with less than two minutes to go in the period, giving the Devils power play a chance to draw within one.
After two, shots on goal were 26-23 for the Devils.
Early in the third, Kurtis MacDermid dropped the gloves with Josh Brown for a spirited fight that saw MacDermid drop Brown after the two traded punches furiously.
Devils had a 5-0 edge in shots just past the three-minute mark of the third.
Seven minutes into the final frame, Hischier rang a shot off the post on a partial break.
Keller added an empty-net goal with 1:31 to play to seal the deal.
