'Yotes Notes: Penalties Key OT Loss to Capitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. --The Coyotes were called for six minor penalties vs. the Washington Capitals on Monday night, and playing shorthanded so much thwarted their bid for a road win at Capital One Arena.
The Capitals won, 3-2, in overtime.
Washington scored just one power-play goal, but having to kill so many penalties kept the Coyotes on their heels and out of the offensive zone for chunks of the game. Arizona was called for slashing four times.

"It's tough," Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "That's a potent power play. The slashing and hooking, you can't do that against this team … It's carelessness. Yeah, there's a couple there maybe you could argue, but you can't swing your stick. They're going to call it."

Meanwhile, the Coyotes failed to score on their three power plays, and are 0 for 9 with a man advantage over the past four games.
"We've got to get our power play straightened out," Tocchet said. "(It's) just too fancy, a little too much perimeter. We need to get people to shoot the puck from the point with people in front. I mean, that's how you score in the NHL."
• Arizona took a 1-0 lead just one minute into the game when Clayton Keller stole the puck from Lars Eller and scored an unassisted goal, his 11th of the season.

The Coyotes have scored the first goal in 12 of their 16 games this season, but are just 2-8-2 in those games.
Keller leads all NHL rookies in goals (11), points (17) and shots (58). His 11 goals rank fourth in the NHL behind only Nikita Kucherov (14), John Tavares (12) and Alex Ovechkin (12), who scored Washington's power-play goal at 14:23 of the second period.
• Christian Fischer gave Arizona a 2-0 lead when he redirected a pass from Christian Dvorak past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby at 6:42 of the first period.

Fischer, like Keller a rookie, ranks second on the Coyotes with four goals.
"We have some things to clean up, but we got a point so we'll take that," Fischer said of the overtime loss, which put Arizona's record at 2-2-1 over its past five games.

• Scott Wedgewood stopped 37 of 40 shots in his third start since coming to the Coyotes in a trade with New Jersey on Oct. 28.
"'Wedgie' was unbelievable," Fischer said. "He kept us in it. They had so many power plays. They only had one goal, but they have one of the best power plays in the League. So credit goes to him. He bailed us out and he got us that point."
Wedgewood was sharp throughout the entire game, even after teammate Brad Richardson inadvertently crashed into him hard during a scrum in the second period. Wedgewood stayed down on the ice for several moments after the collision, and the team's medical trainer checked him out. The hit got him in the shoulder, not the head, and he stayed in the game.
"Luckily they didn't call me out (for concussion protocol)," Wedgewood said. "It was nothing to my head, just my left shoulder was a little looser than the right one after that."
Wedgewood liked how the Coyotes took a 2-0 lead after two shots, and he thought they played well in penalty-kill mode.
"We came out hot, and that was awesome being on the road, and we put them on their heels," Wedgewood said. "(Two goals on two shots), you can't ask for a better start. Then, give them credit, they found a way to get back in the game and kept battling ... I thought we did a great job all-around, we just didn't get the final result."

• Richardson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Derek Stepan all wore an 'A' vs. Washington. The Coyotes do not have a captain this season.
• Head Equipment Manager Stan Wilson, who has been with the Coyotes/Jets franchise since 1990, worked his 2,000th NHL game.