Recap: Coyotes Blank Leafs in Front of Packed Arena

GLENDALE -- On a day when every other team trying to catch the two wildcard teams in the Western Conference standings that played lost, the Coyotes won.

Alex Galchenyuk and Josh Archibald scored goals in a 2-0 victory for Arizona over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at Gila River Arena. Darcy Kuemper mad 22 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and the 13th of his NHL career.
The Coyotes played in-your-face defense and limited the high-scoring Leafs to just five shots on goal in the first 30:00 of the game.
"That's how we've got to play," Coyotes Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "We have to play a defend-first, timely-goal, protect-the-middle-of-the-ice type of system and the guys did that ... To play a Leafs team as star-studded as they are, you have to execute a game plan and the players were diligent in the game plan. I have to give them a lot of credit."

Galchenyuk and Archibald scored goals 2:40 apart early in the second period. Galchenyuk's was a nifty backdoor goal set up by a slick pass from Jordan Oesterle at 3:19. Archibald ripped the rebound of a sharp-angle shot by Derek Stepan past Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen at 5:59. Lawson Crouse set up the scoring sequence by creating a turnover in Toronto's zone with aggressive forechecking.
"I think when I have success I'm moving my feet and I thought I was doing that well tonight," Archibald said. "When you play with guys like 'Steps' and 'Crouser' they make the game easy. You've just got to get to the spots and they'll get you the puck, and I think that's what I did tonight."

• Leading 2-0, Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson was sent to the penalty box for four minutes for high-sticking. Arizona, which leads the NHL in penalty killing, clamped down even tighter defensively and did not allow Toronto to score. Kuemper made four saves and his teammates blocked three shots while Ekman-Larsson sat.
"That was a huge turning point for us to keep the momentum," Archibald said. "You look at (Kuemper) and the saves he made, and all the blocks our defense made, that was really big for us."

• Toronto pulled Andersen with just over 3:00 left in the third period and made a frantic push to score. But Kuemper stopped all six shots he faced during that time and the Coyotes, who were blanked by St. Louis on home ice just 48 hours earlier, left the ice with a shutout win.
"I think it was a good turnaround game for us, a good response," Archibald said. "We didn't play the way we wanted to (vs. St. Louis) and I think we came out and had a really great start. That was something we wanted to do."

• With the win, Arizona climbed to fourth place in the race for the Western Conference's two wildcard spots, currently held by Dallas (63 points) and Minnesota (60 points). The Coyotes have 57 points, two behind Vancouver, with 24 games left on their schedule.
"We did a lot of good things, and obviously took some penalties," said Stepanm who played 21:46. "'Kuemps' had to make some saves, had to hold on there, but overall it was a strong 60 (minutes), and if you play 60-minute hockey like that you're going to find yourself on the right side a lot."

• Arizona played minus forward Richard Panik, who was ill. Mario Kempe, who had missed the past two games because of an upper-body injury, returned to the lineup in Panik's place and skated 13:26.
• The Coyotes blocked 27 shots on goal. Niklas Hjalmarsson and Alex Goligoski led the way with six blocks apiece.