Wild denied sixth straight win with loss to Coyotes

ST. PAUL, Minn. --The Minnesota Wild remained tied for second place in the Central Division when their five-game winning streak ended with a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno each had a goal and an assist for the Wild (51-22-7), who were 8-0-2 in their previous 10 games. Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves.
Minnesota, which has two regular-season games remaining, and the St. Louis Blues each have 109 points; the Blues, who have seven more regulation wins, have one game left after a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
"Our whole game [stunk] tonight," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We got what we deserved. That hasn't happened to us, fortunately, and we didn't shoot the puck. We were just going through the lineup and you don't go through everybody, but it's hard to find a good player here tonight."
Anton Stralman had a goal and two assists, and Jack McBain scored his first NHL goal for the Coyotes (23-50-7), who had lost 10 straight games (0-8-2). Karel Vejmelka made 35 saves.
"We lost our mojo for a 10-day period, and it was not pretty," Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. "You never know if you will get it back. It's not a guarantee. It's not easy. If it was easy, everybody will have it. You see the guys fighting like that at the end when it's easy to just pack in, I'm really proud of them."

Ryan Hartman gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead on a breakaway at 11:05 of the first period.
Stralman tied it 1-1 at 18:15 of the second period with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle.
McBain scored 20 seconds into the third period on a redirection of Shayne Gostisbehere's shot to give Arizona a 2-1 lead, and Antoine Roussel scored on a backhand at 2:56 to make it 3-1.
"It was a great play by [Stralman] there to find me," McBain said. "It just feels good to get that one out of the way and just not worry about it and play. It was good."

Eriksson Ek cut it to 3-2 at 4:51 on a rebound, and Foligno tied it 24 seconds later at 5:15 to make it 3-3.
"Usually we win these games," Eriksson Ek said. "But like I said, we have to learn and know what to do better."
Travis Boyd redirected a shot from Gostisbehere at 10:22 on a power play to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead, and Phil Kessel scored an empty-net goal at 18:41 for the 5-3 final.
It was Fleury's third straight start (2-1-0); he has allowed 11 goals in that span.
"Personally, I've got to be better," Fleury said. "I feel like I'm giving up a lot of goals lately. It's making me mad, but (I've got to) keep working and keep practicing hard and move on to the next one."

NOTES: McBain was drafted by the Wild in the third round (No. 63) of the 2018 NHL Draft. He opted not to sign with them and was traded to the Coyotes on March 21 for a second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. … Minnesota forward Matt Boldy extended his point streak to 12 games (three goals, 12 assists). … Eriksson Ek has scored in three straight games and has eight points (five goals, three assists) in that span.