Game Recap: Wild 5, Coyotes 2

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Mats Zuccarello had three assists, and the Minnesota Wild scored four straight goals in the third period to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 at Mullett Arena on Thursday.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for the Wild (30-27-6), who won their second straight after losing three in a row. Joel Eriksson Ek scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had an assist, and Brock Faber had a goal and an assist.

“`Flower’ was great, he made some huge saves for us, and that’s what he does. He battles, he competes,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought `Zucc’ was in it to win it tonight. It was a game where we had to get two points, and he was a big factor in it.”

Clayton Keller and Michael Carcone scored for the Coyotes (25-33-5), who lost their 16th in the past 18 games (2-14-2). Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.

“I thought it was a good game, we played well, we had Grade-A chances, but their goalie made some really good saves on those Grade-A chances,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said.

Kirill Kaprizov gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 1:51 of the second period, putting in his own rebound on a power play for his 30th goal of the season, and fourth in two games.

An apparent Minnesota goal by Jacob Lucchini at 6:59 was overturned after Arizona successfully challenged that the play was offside. 

The teams combined for three goals in 39 seconds in the third period. 

Keller tied it 1-1 at 1:21 on a power play. Nick Schmaltz’s shot from the right point deflected off Arizona forward Barrett Hayton, and right to Keller along the goal line.

Carcone scored seven seconds later at 1:28 to put Arizona up 2-1 with a wrist shot inside the far post following Jack McBain’s face-off win at center ice.

“Unfortunately, they got a couple of bounces there and got a couple of goals, and then it's uphill, but we managed to get out of it pretty quick, and then it was good,” Zuccarello said. “We gave them some odd-man rushes [after that], but [Fleury] stood tall and kept us in the game.”

The two goals were the fastest ever scored against the Wild in succession. They gave up two in eight seconds in a 6-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Jan. 29.

“Seven seconds?” Fleury said. “That’s pretty quick. But I liked that nobody panicked. You just deal with it. After that, we got a couple of quick goals. I liked how we didn’t overthink it.”

Zach Bogosian tied it 2-2 at 2:00. Ryan Hartman dragged the puck behind the net before setting up Bogosian for his first goal in 23 games. The Coyotes unsuccessfully challenged that Lucchini interfered with Vejmelka. 

“I saw Ryan kind of going towards the net, [I was] maybe looking for a rebound, and he made a really nice play and kicked it out to me, and luckily, I was able to put it in the net,” Bogosian said.

Eriksson Ek put the Wild back in front 3-2 at 7:16 with a wrist shot from the high slot over Vejmelka’s blocker after Zuccarello turned the puck over.

“We had two turnovers in the third that cost us our lead,” Tourigny said. 

Faber’s empty-net goal at 18:48 made it 4-2, and Connor Dewar scored into an empty net at 19:33 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: The Coyotes held forward Jason Zucker and defenseman Matt Dumba out of the game for trade-related reasons. Nick Bjugstad missed the game for the expected birth of his child. … Arizona defenseman Patrik Koch had four hits and played 9:20 in his NHL debut after being called up from Tucson of the American Hockey League. … The three goals in 39 seconds were the second fastest in the NHL this season. The New York Islanders and St. Louis Blues combined for three in 32 seconds on Feb. 22.  … Fleury has won six of his past eight decisions. He is 19-10-1 in his career against Arizona. … Faber (36) matched Marian Gaborik for the third-most points by a Wild rookie in a single season. … Kaprizov has six goals in his past six games. The 30-goal season is his third in a row. He joined Gaborik (2005-06 to 2007-08) and Brian Rolston (2005-06 to 2007-08) as the only Minnesota players to do so. … Wild defenseman Jake Middleton missed the game with an upper-body injury. … Before the game, the Wild traded forward Brandon Duhaime to the Avalanche. Minnesota plays Colorado in the second night of a back-to-back Friday.