OTTAWA – Dylan Guenther scored on a power play early in the third period, and the Arizona Coyotes put an end to their losing streak by winning for the first time in 15 games, on Friday, with a score of 5-3 over the Ottawa Senators.
Arizona arrived in the Canadian capital after losing in Toronto the night before, and having lost 12 games in regulation and two more in overtime in their last 14 outings.
This period of great drought is now a thing of the past.
On the Ottawa side, in addition to a third consecutive rather humiliating defeat, the health of captain Brady Tkachuk will be monitored, who was forced to leave the game in the third period after colliding with his rival Liam O’Brien.
At the end of his shift, Tkachuk skated slowly and in pain towards his team’s locker room. He was not seen in the final part of the third period, when Ottawa was trying to equalize.
The Sens will hit the road in the next few hours to visit the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night.
Sens dominated in the 1st period
During the first 18 minutes of the game, the visitors did not look like a team that hadn’t won since January 22.
Attacking Anton Forsberg’s net, they scored three times in an eight-minute span, courtesy of Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, and Nick Schmaltz.
Already leading 2-0, Arizona was given a golden opportunity to add to their lead when Mark Kastelic received a double minor penalty for high-sticking, and Ridly Greig was ejected for tripping shortly after.
André Tourigny’s men didn’t ask for any more, and added to their lead with a five-on-three advantage.
Martin may have wished to whip his troops by changing goalies, but he didn’t have that luxury, as Joonas Korpisalo stayed home due to illness, and Mads Sogaard didn’t arrive in time from his emergency recall from Belleville.
The Sens at least had the merit of finishing the first period strong, scoring through Vladimir Tarasenko at 18:09.
Karel Vejmelka’s brilliance in the middle period helped maintain the 3-1 lead for a long time, but he couldn’t do anything when Drake Batherson deflected a shot and retrieved his own rebound in the Coyotes goaltender’s half-circle, with six minutes to go.
The Sens’ comeback effort continued 2:03 later, as Arizona’s indiscipline opened the door to Shane Pinto’s sixth goal of the season. Suddenly, the counters were reset at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Meanwhile, the Coyotes were limited to three measly shots on goal, after firing 19 times on Forsberg in the first period.
Early in the third, Greig’s second trip to the penalty box led to another rookie, Guenther, putting Arizona back in the driver’s seat with 15:39 remaining.
Mattias Maccelli then rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal, collecting a third point in the game.
Last December 19th, in Jacques Martin’s first game back behind the bench, the Coyotes overcame a 0-3 deficit to beat the Sens in regulation time, 4-3.
For the Coyotes, star forward Clayton Keller was absent from the lineup for a fourth consecutive game due to an upper-body injury.
Tourigny did not rule out Keller’s return for the last game of his team’s week, Sunday afternoon against the Washington Capitals.
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