Recap: Coyotes Beat Blues, Move Into Second Wildcard Spot

ST. LOUIS -- The Coyotes climbed into the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference standings on Tuesday night thanks to a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the Enterprise Center.

Darcy Kuemper stopped 39 of 40 shots, and also notched an assist, to lead Arizona to its 75th point of the season, one more than idle Minnesota, which held the second wildcard spot until Tuesday. Both teams have 12 games left to play.
"We've been battling really hard to get where we're at," said captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who scored a lengthy empty-net goal with 21.7 seconds left to secure the win after St. Louis rallied to within 2-1 by scoring a power-play goal late in the third period. "Hopefully we can keep going and keep staying at that wildcard spot. That's what we're focussed on right now. We don't look at the other teams. We need to focus on what we have to do and that's what we're trying to do."

Richard Panik and Vinnie Hinostroza also scored goals for the Coyotes, who rebounded nicely after a 7-1 loss at Chicago on Monday.
"Good teams, when they have a rough game or they have a low spot, they bounce back and they're at their best," Hinostroza said. "I think tonight we had a great effort ... We're a really resilient bunch and we just want to work hard for each other."

Panik scored his goal at 1:05 of the second period after Blues goalie Jordan Binnington misplayed the puck. Hinostroza gave Arizona a 2-0 lead when he wristed the puck through traffic and past Binnington just 23 seconds into the third period.
"Vinnie was all over the ice tonight," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "He was a buzz saw. He played really well. I thought that line did a nice job ... Vinnie was really good tonight. He put a lot of pressure on them. It seemed like he could skate all day."

• Kuemper, whom Tocchet yanked from Monday's game after he allowed four goals on 16 shots, earned his 23rd win of the season. He was particularly effective in the third period when the Blues produced 18 shots on goal.
"We really needed a bounce back after last night," Kuemper said. "That was pretty ugly. You could see us kind of bearing down and really focusing on being positional and that's what got the job done ... That made my reads easier and I was able to track it pretty good."

Kuemper was given an assist on Ekman-Larsson's empty-net goal. It's the third point - all assists - of his 175-game NHL career, and his first as a member of the Coyotes.
"'Kuemps' was great," Tocchet said. "He was just really solid … He was big in the net tonight."
• Ekman-Larsson suffered a nasty cut over his left eye after tumbling into the boards with Sammy Blais late in the second period. He missed a few shifts early in the third period but eventually returned after getting some stitches.

• Ilya Lyubushkin was inserted into the lineup in place of Jakob Chychrun, who was a healthy scratch. Lyubushkin, who sat out the past five games as a healthy scratch, delivered a game-high six hits and swapped punches with Patrick Maroon in his first NHL fight.
• The Coyotes have not lost two games in a row since early February.
"One thing this team does is it bounces back," Tocchet said. "We had a bend-but-don't-break defense today. St. Louis was coming at us pretty hard, but I thought we did a nice job of getting in lanes and playing half-decent positional hockey."
He added: "If we can win we control our own destiny. That's our attitude. We've got to recharge ... We've got a big game on Thursday (vs. Anaheim). That's the way we have to think."