Canucks fall to Coyotes in OT, lose ground in Pacific

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver Canucks rallied with two goals in the third period but lost ground in the Pacific Division with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.

“Obviously, good for us to push back, but I don't think it's really a team that's better than us, so we probably shouldn't be in that position,” said Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, who had three assists. “They were just opportunistic. I’d say we probably had more of the puck possession and looks.”

Logan Cooley won it for the Coyotes with 1:09 remaining in overtime, finishing a backdoor pass through the crease from Dylan Guenther six seconds after a power play that was drawn by Guenther expired.

The goal also came 30 seconds after Filip Hronek was stopped on a penalty shot by Connor Ingram.

“When you have a chance to end the game like that, especially in overtime, you want to capitalize on that chance,” Cooley said. “If [Ingram] doesn't make that save, we are not having this conversation, so props to him and props to 'Gunner,' too, for making a [heck] of a play and finding me.”

Guenther, who turned 21 on Wednesday, had a goal and three assists, and Cooley and Vladislav Kolyachonok each had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes (34-40-5), who were coming off a 5-0 loss at the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. Ingram made 23 saves.

“We didn't perform the way we wanted to [in Seattle],” Cooley said. “It just comes back to being resilient, sticking together, coming in against a Vancouver team like that and playing the way we did. It's special.”

Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson scored in the third, and Arturs Silovs made 14 saves for Vancouver (48-22-9), which has lost five of its past eight games (3-4-1).

“We showed that when we're skating, they can't really keep up with us,” Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy said. “Unfortunately, we waited until it was too late.”

Vancouver leads the Edmonton Oilers, who defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 on Wednesday, by four points for first in the Pacific. Edmonton, which hosts the Coyotes on Friday and the Canucks on Saturday, has two games in hand.

“Obviously, the way we played today wasn’t playoff hockey and wasn’t good enough,” said forward Elias Lindholm, who returned after missing seven games because of a wrist injury. “And obviously we have three more games to put ourselves in a good spot and feel good about our game and get some confidence. We’re going to play some good teams, so it’s going to be a big stretch for us here.”

Josh Brown put the Coyotes ahead 1-0 at 5:46 of the second period, scoring from the right circle after Guenther's initial shot produced a big rebound.

J.T. Miller tied it 1-1 at 18:32. Tyler Myers' slap shot from the top of the left circle hit Miller's skate in front as he was battling for position before he slid the puck in with his backhand.

Miller has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) during a nine-game point streak.

Kolyachonok, a defenseman who was recalled earlier in the day from Tucson of the American Hockey League, put the Coyotes ahead 2-1 at 19:28 with a shot from the right point that hit Canucks forward Dakota Joshua and deflected five-hole on a screened Silovs.

Guenther made it 3-1 at 1:55 of the third period with a one-timer from the edge of the crease after Cooley stole the puck from Hughes below the goal line.

“Their [defensemen] are really good back there and they can make a lot of plays, so we want to limit their time and space as much as possible, and I thought we did that,” Cooley said. “I was fortunate to pickpocket that and found Guenther, and when he's open in the slot like that, it's going in.”

Guenther was not made available to the media after the game but Arizona coach Andre Tourigny had plenty of praise for the forward.

“He played the game the right way," Tourigny said. "He wants to play the right away, he has great value, he will be a great leader. He's a blessing for us.”

Garland cut it to 3-2 at 11:18 with a quick shot over Ingram’s glove from the bottom of the left circle off a pass from Nils Hoglander from behind the net.

Pettersson tied it 3-3 at 16:18, beating Ingram glove side from the right face-off dot 12 seconds into a Canucks power play.

“We made a push at the end,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “ I don’t think we went to the net in the first two periods. Third period we had urgency.”

NOTES: Hughes has 91 points (17 goals, 74 assists) in 79 games this season. He is the 11th defenseman in NHL history to have at least 90 points in a season. It was also Hughes' ninth three-assist game this season. He joined Bobby Orr (four times) and Ray Bourque (1993-94) as the only defensemen to have at least that many three-assist games in a season. ... Lindholm was minus-2 and was 6-for-12 on face-offs in 18:30 of ice time.