Hurricanes defeat Coyotes, close gap in wild card

RALEIGH, N.C. --Jeff Skinner scored his second goal of the game with 1:58 remaining in the third period to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-5 win against the Arizona Coyotes at PNC Arena on Thursday.
Seven players had at least two points for the Hurricanes (32-31-11), who moved within seven points of the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"It's been a while for me personally," said Skinner, who scored for the first time in 14 games. "It was nice. At the same time though, you just keep doing the same thing. Sometimes it goes in."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Valentin Zykov scored two goals, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Teuvo Teravainen scored, and Cam Ward made 28 saves for Carolina. Jaccob Slavin had three assists.
Zykov, playing his second game since his recall from Charlotte of the American Hockey League, tied it at 5-5 when he dug out a loose puck in the crease at 9:46 of the third period.

"I just get in front," said Zykov, who leads the AHL with 32 goals. "It's one part of my game and it seems to work for me. Still lots of things to learn and get better."
Alex Goligoski scored two goals, and Clayton Keller, Josh Archibald and Nick Cousins scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for Arizona (25-38-11).
Skinner scored at the right post to make it 1-0 48 seconds into the first period, and Zykov pushed the lead to 2-0 at 4:55 on a shot from the high slot.
The Coyotes cut the lead to 2-1 at 8:27 on a bizarre play in which Ward inadvertently carried the puck into the net. Goligoski dumped the puck behind the Carolina net and it lodged in the molding of Ward's skate. Ward, unaware of where the puck was, returned to the crease, dropped to his knees and his skate went past the goal line.

"That's gotta be a first," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "Nobody knew where it was. I think it affected everybody. You're thinking, 'what else? What's next'? It was very bizarre."
Keller took a feed from Derek Stepan and tied the game 2-2 with 22 seconds remaining in the first.
Di Giuseppe answered with a one-timer to give Carolina a 3-2 lead at 1:40 of the second.
"It's obviously been tough," said Di Giuseppe, whose three-point game gave him seven points (three goals, four assists) in 41 games. "I know what I'm capable of. I've just got to bring that every game."
Archibald tied it 3-3 at 4:27, and Cousins banked a shot off Ward's pads to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead at 5:45.
Teravainen tied the game 4-4 at 14:56.

Goligoski scored on the power play with 11 seconds left in the period to give the Coyotes 5-4 lead.
"An ugly game but you're up going into the third," Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said. "We just wanted to play the right way. [I'm] upset because we were diligent. We came back when we were down 2-0."

Goal of the game

Skinner's goal at 18:02 of the third period.

Save of the game

Ward's save on Oliver Ekman-Larsson with 41 seconds remaining in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Zykov's goal at 9:46 of the third period.

They said it

"We were [leading] again and a couple guys cheated, and you can't. That's not winning hockey. I don't care if it's eight games left or 80 games left. It's something that we will get right. You cannot cheat this game." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"I've had some bad bounces throughout my career but this certainly tops the list. What can you do? I can't sit here and pretend like it didn't bother me because it did bother me. You battle all season long, you compete and a bounce like that happens. It doesn't seem fair at the time. I did what I could to move on from it."-- Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward

Need to know

Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson left in the second period with a lower-body injury. … Keller had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (three goals, six assists). ... Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho had two assists to extend his point streak to seven games (three goals, seven assists). … Teravainen had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (4 goals, five assists). … Carolina has allowed 31 goals in the past six games.

What's next

Coyotes:At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-A, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes: At the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, CITY, FS-CR, NHL.TV)