Recap: Poor Third Period Costs Coyotes vs. Knights

GLENDALE --The Coyotes couldn't keep up with the Golden Knights in the third period on Sunday night at Gila River Arena, and what was a competitive game for two periods evolved into a 5-1 win for Vegas.
Arizona began the third period trailing 2-1 with 1:15 left on a power play, but failed to score the tying goal, or even threaten to score. Vegas then notched three goals within an eight-minute span of the final stanza, including a shorthanded goal, to seize control of the game.

Coyotes Head Coach Rick Tocchet did not mince words after the game when describing his team's performance.
"I just saw a team just go totally south on us," Tocchet said. "It's not everybody. There's a handful of guys that just were very, very casual ... We had some positive things going the last three or four games, and to just blow it up like this is very disheartening. I'm really disappointed in the players."
The Golden Knights are 6-1-0 vs. the Coyotes since coming into the NHL last season, and 4-0-0 in games played at Glendale.

"If you want to be a good NHL hockey team or player, you've got to be consistent," Tocchet said. "It's hard to be a consistent player, it's hard to go middle-drive, it's hard to be hard on the puck, it's hard to be a double-up guy, it's hard to go to the net, and to do it all the time. That's what good teams do. So, maybe we have some players here that just can't do it regularly and we're going to have to find some players that will. That's just the bottom line."

• Paul Stastny scored at 3:35 of the first period to give Vegas a 1-0 lead. That score held up until Nick Schmaltz wristed a shot between Marc-Andre Fleury's legs at 11:06 of the second period to pull the Coyotes into a 1-1 tie. That stalemate was short-lived as Vegas challenged the goal citing off-side on Arizona's Vinnie Hinostroza. After video review, Schmaltz's goal was overturned.
Less than five minutes later, Reilly Smith notched a backdoor goal from in close to give Vegas a 2-0 lead.
• Alex Galchenyuk scored Arizona's lone goal from the right circle during a power play at 16:57 of the second period. The tally extended Galchenyuk's point streak to five games, his longest during his first season with Arizona.
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson set up Galchenyuk's wrist shot with a pass from the top of the slot. With the assist, Ekman-Larsson claimed the record for most points produced by a Coyotes defenseman (312).
"I thought they were the hardest working team that we've played all year," Ekman-Larsson said. "If you can't compete for 60 minutes, it's going to get ugly, and that's what happened tonight ... We had a chance to get back in the game. I thought the first and the second (periods) we kind of hung around the game, and we had a chance to do something on the power play (to start the third), and came out and played really, really poor hockey. Didn't compete, didn't do much out there, to be honest with you, and they kept working hard."

• Darcy Kuemper stopped 21 of 23 shots in the first two periods, but he gave up three goals on 14 shots in the third.
"I thought he was too busy behind the puck and playing the net way too much," Tocchet said. "I'm not going to blame Kuemper, he tried, but he just played the puck too much. There's a couple times when he actually gave the puck to them, but, like I said, I'm not going to blame the goalie on this."
• Arizona was just 1 for 6 on power plays.
"It seems to go in waves on the power play," Alex Goligoski said. "We've been getting some goals lately, but the consistency from the power play isn't really there. I suppose it's a concern, and it's something we work at every day, so I'm sure we'll continue to do that."
• Niklas Hjalmarsson led all skaters with four blocked shots. He leads the Coyotes and ranks ninth in the NHL with 90.