Recap: Coyotes Beat 'Canes in OT, Extend Win Streak to Five Games

GLENDALE -The Coyotes scored an even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, and, most importantly, an overtime goal on Friday night, and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3, at Gila River Arena.
Michael Grabner backhanded a nifty pass from Clayton Keller past Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek at 1:17 of the extra session, allowing Arizona to stretch its winning streak to five games.
The Coyotes jumped to another 3-0 lead in the first period, but were outplayed by Carolina in the second and third frames. Goalie Antti Raanta, playing in his 150th NHL game, kept Arizona in the game by making a career-high 48 saves.

"That's the only reason we won the game," forward Brad Richardson said. "(Raanta) made a ton of great saves … It was very ugly, but we pulled it off, so it's a good thing. We definitely kind of held on for dear life, got to overtime and then won. We'll take it."
Head Coach Rick Tocchet praised the team's veterans for willing the Coyotes to the win.
"We looked tired," Tocchet said. "Some guys looked real tired. I thought the veteran guys played well tonight … You look at great teams, they're going to win some games that they shouldn't. It's nice for us to win those types of games. Second and third (periods), obviously Carolina was the better team. But we grinded it out, so it's nice."

• Raanta made multiple spectacular saves throughout the game to wow the fans, his teammates and Tocchet.
"He's just been terrific," Tocchet said. "He's a leader. You could put a 'C' on his chest. He's that type of guy. He works hard in the gym, he's changed some diet stuff, he's just done whatever it takes to be that guy and he wants to be that guy. He's giving us a chance every night."
Raanta liked how his teammates competed in front of him.
"It doesn't matter what situation it is, everybody's always dialed in," Raanta said. "We didn't have the perfect game today, but we battled hard and got two points, and that's pretty much the only thing that matters."

• Richardson gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead by scoring a short-handed goal at 13:07 of the first period. It was Arizona's seventh short-handed goal of the season, which leads the NHL.
"We're not going to keep scoring (shorties) at this type of pace, it's insane," Richardson said. "We're just happy to kill the plays off and if we happen to score, it's good."
Thanks to Richardson's goal, Arizona became the first NHL team to score a short-handed goal in four consecutive games since the New Jersey Devils in 2011-12.
• Brendan Perlini and Nick Cousins scored goals 55 seconds apart to help the Coyotes secure a 3-0 lead after one period for a third straight game.

• Former Coyotes forward Jordan Martinook scored Carolina's first goal in the second period. Down 3-1 in the third, the Hurricanes tied the score thanks to back-to-back goals by Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Staal within a span of 40 seconds.
• The Coyotes killed all six of Carolina's power plays, and rank second in the NHL with a 92.1 percent success rate on PKs.
"It seems every bounce is going our way and the puck is going in, and the big thing is we aren't giving up anything the other way," Grabner said.

• Defenseman Kevin Connauton missed a second consecutive game due to illness. Ilya Lyubushkin again replaced him in the lineup and made a key play at 9:57 of the second period when he slid across the crease and blocked a shot by Carolina's Dougie Hamilton with Raanta away from the net.

• Stats that jump off the Event Summary: Alex Goligoski notched three assists, Arizona blocked 26 shots, and Richardson won 12 of 19 face-offs.