Coyotes Fall to Wild on Wednesday at Mullett Arena

STATS

Logan Cooley scored his ninth goal of the season, but the Arizona Coyotes fell 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild at Mullett Arena on Wednesday. Connor Ingram made 28 saves through two periods, but did not return for the third after sustaining an injury, and Karel Vejmelka made 12 saves in relief.

Tourigny said after the game that Ingram’s unspecified injury isn’t overly serious, but will keep him out for roughly one week.

“It should not be long, 7-10 days,” Tourigny said. “They told me after the period he was going out, and they just told me about a week, so we’ll see.”

Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin, and Matt Boldy scored for the Wild, who won their fourth straight game. Marc-André Fleury made 25 saves to earn his 10th win of the season.

“They played pretty good defensively on the other side,” Tourigny said. “They collapsed the slot. I would have loved to have generated more broken plays, more scrappy goals.”

Eriksson Ek opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 14:01 of the first period, wristing a rebound up and over Ingram.

Nick Schmaltz appeared to tie the game late in the second period, but coach John Hynes challenged for goalie interference, and the refs determined after review that Barrett Hayton impeded Fleury’s ability to make the save.

Hayton started the game centering Cooley and Dylan Guenther, but Tourigny switched him and Jack McBain in the second period, putting him on the top line between Schmaltz and Clayton Keller.

“He’s a good net presence and he can make the little plays,” Tourigny said. “[McBain] was playing good out there, I just wanted to make a little bit of a change and see if we could provoke something. Hayton has that feel to get in front of the net at the right time and screen goalies.”

Brodin made it 2-0 late in the second, beating Ingram with 20 seconds left for his third goal of the season.

Cooley got the Coyotes on the board at 5:21 of the third period, making a move around the defender before beating Fleury low to make it 2-1.

“He’s a Hall of Fame goalie, and a guy that, growing up in Pittsburgh, I watched him a lot,” Cooley said. “I just tried to get a shot off, fortunately it went in, but it’s still a loss.”

Boldy made it 3-1 at 11:04 of the final frame, beating Vejmelka low to restore Minnesota’s two-goal lead, which rounded out the scoring on Wednesday.

Arizona is back in action on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on Arizona 61 (TV) and 98.7 FM Arizona Sports (Radio). 

“It’s a busy month of games, and we’re going to watch video on this to see how we can get better,” Cooley said. “We have to be ready to go against a heck of a team like Carolina.”