Kuemper, Coyotes hand Golden Knights fourth straight home loss

LAS VEGAS -- Darcy Kuemper made 41 saves for the Arizona Coyotes in a 5-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Nick Cousins and Richard Panik each had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Oesterle, Alex Galchenyuk and Josh Archibald also scored for Arizona (25-26-5). Vinnie Hinostroza, Derek Stepan and Niklas Hjalmarsson each had two assists.
"It's just a no-excuse mentality," said Kuemper, who has won his past two starts. "Everyone's working hard, even in games like this where they come out and have the first period they do, you can still see our effort and the way we're defending and competing in the little areas of the ice that make the difference between getting scored on or getting a chance."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Golden Knights highlights]
The Coyotes are four points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference despite injuries to key players, including starting goalie Antti Raanta, defenseman Jason Demers, and forwards Michael Grabner, Mario Kempe, Brad Richardson and Nick Schmaltz.
"There's no quit in this team," Cousins said. "It's unbelievable with all of these injuries and all the adversity that's been thrown at us this year. There's a no-quit mentality. When they tied it 2-2, there was no panic on the bench."

Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves and was denied his 30th win of the season for Vegas (31-23-4), which has lost a team record four in a row at home and six of eight overall.
"In my opinion, we give them three goals from our mistakes," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "They played well; I give them credit. But when you give them three goals like that, you're not going to win many games."
After being outshot 16-6 in the first period, the Coyotes took a 1-0 lead at 9:38 of the second when Oesterle scored a power-play goal.
Galchenyuk made it 2-0 at 14:00 of the second on a breakaway.
"We weathered the storm when we could," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "I thought we had some big goals from some big guys at crucial times. That bend-don't-break defense helped us tonight."

Brandon Pirri quickly responded for Vegas to make it 2-1 at 14:29, and Nate Schmidt scored at 19:30 to tie it 2-2.
Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith was awarded a penalty shot at 16:33 of the second period when Coyotes defenseman Kevin Connauton was called for hooking on a breakaway attempt. Smith's attempt hit off the left post and stayed out.
"We didn't battle hard enough," Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. "We were in a good spot at 2-2 going into the third, but we just didn't battle. We weren't good enough."

Cousins scored his first goal in 13 games at 9:21 of the third period to give the Coyotes a 3-2 lead, and Archibald scored at 17:48 to make it 4-2.
Panik scored an empty-net goal at 19:03 for the 5-2 final.

They said it

"We're still building an identity and all that stuff. I know there's a lot of excuses going around, but I don't really feel our team does that. That's our attitude and that's how we're staying in this thing. A long way to go, and a lot of hockey left, but this is a big win for this team." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"We got [43 shots, but] I didn't like the way we played. I thought we played about 10 minutes of real good hockey tonight. There was no passion in our game, there was no aggressive forecheck in our game. We played a soft game." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant

Need to know

Connauton played his 300th NHL game. … Schmidt's goal was his 100th NHL career point. … Pirri scored for the first time in nine games. He returned after missing the past two games because of an upper-body injury.

What's next

Coyotes: Host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-MW, NHL.TV)
Golden Knights: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, SNO, NHL.TV)