Coyotes Earn Point, Lose Shootout vs. Flyers

Coyotes Head Coach Rick Tocchet has never been a big fan of shootouts.
But with the Coyotes up one goal and the Flyers down one goalie after the first two rounds of Saturday's postgame shootout at Gila River Arena, Tocchet's team looked in good position to steal the second point and sweep the season series from Philadelphia.

But Jakub Voracek tied the shootout in the third round, backup goalie Michal Neuvirth didn't allow a goal in five attempts subbing for the injured Brian Elliott, and Nolan Patrick scored in the seventh round to give the Flyers a 4-3 win.
"(Shootouts) are such a roll of the dice," Tocchet said. "We practice it and you look for who scores … and the last couple of times we practiced it not a lot of guys have been scoring. You're basically picking a guy out of a hat."

Nick Cousins scored on Arizona's first attempt and Antti Raanta, who made 39 saves in regulation and stoned Sean Couturier at the overtime buzzer to force the shootout, stopped the first two Philadelphia shooters before Elliott suffered a lower-body injury making a save on Clayton Keller and had to be helped from the ice.
One more goal or one more save would have won it for Arizona. But Brendan Perlini fanned on his shot against Neuwirth and Voracek beat Raanta with a bullet off the crossbar to extend the shootout. Four rounds later, Patrick gave the Flyers their first shootout win of the year (1-4).
The Coyotes are 1-5 in shootouts this season. Keller, Perlini, Derek Stepan, Tobias Rieder, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Max Domi all missed for Arizona. Hjalmarsson, who hasn't scored a goal since coming to Arizona, seemed an odd choice but Tocchet said he did some heavy lobbying on the bench.
"He has this one move and he said (on the bench) that he guaranteed that he would score," Tocchet said with a smile. "Joe Namath."
The Coyotes allowed two power-play goals to Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds of the Flyers which ultimately did them in.
"They have a really good power play and had a couple of blown coverages on the goals," Tocchet said. "It's something we have to straighten out."
The Coyotes, who were 7-2-2- in their last 11 games against Philadelphia and going for their second consecutive season sweep of the Flyers, scored in the first four minutes of each period, put a quick goal on the board by cashing in a Shayne Gostisbehere turnover 3:53 into the game.
Stepan put a cross-crease pass on the stick of Jason Demers, who mishit the puck but got enough of it to bounce under the stick of Elliott and between the pads. It was the fourth goal of the season for Demers and his first in 23 games, dating to Dec. 23 against the New Jersey Devils.

Stepan now has five points (1-4-5) during a three-game point streak and leads Arizona in home scoring with 21 points in 26 games.
But the Flyers answered with two goals in a span of 1:22, starting when an Arizona penalty for too many men on the ice set up the power play and a Giroux bomb that beat Raanta under the crossbar at 10:19. Then at 11:41, Michael Raffl finished an odd-man rush with his 10th goal to give the Flyers their first lead.
"Tired of losing," Raanta said. "Doesn't matter if it is overtime, shootout or 60 minutes. It kind of grinds you."

Arizona trailed 2-1 after one period but drew even in the second with another quick early goal.
Alex Goligoski took a pass from Hjalmarsson and put a shot through traffic that eluded Elliott at 27 seconds. It was the sixth goal of the year for Goligoski and his second against the Flyers - he had the overtime game-winner in a 4-3 Arizona victory at Philadelphia on Oct. 30.
Again, the Flyers answered quickly on the power play. With Stepan in the box, Simmonds was all alone in front of Raanta and deftly deflected a shot from the high point at 2:12 for his 10th power-play goal of the year and 19th overall, and Arizona was down again at 3-2.
But there was one more period - and one more quick Coyotes goal - to come.
Good work along the boards by Rinaldo and Domi led to a Domi chip pass at the face-off circle to Rinaldo. The former Flyers draft pick (sixth round in 2008) rifled a wrist shot past Elliott's glove for his fourth goal and second in five games at 1:59 to tie it 3-3.
"Good work on the boards by Max and we kind of worked it off together," Rinaldo said. "He gave me a nice little pass and you shoot to score."
It stayed that way until the shootout, where the Coyotes settled for a point.
"It was a good back-and-fourth game," Demers said. "We fell asleep a couple of times but there were a lot of momentum swings. You take the positives out of it and work on things defensively. When we play the right way it's hard to play against us."