Vejmelka makes 34 saves, Coyotes defeat Kraken

SEATTLE-- Karel Vejmelka made 34 saves, and the Arizona Coyotes won 5-2 against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday.

Vejmelka started after making 24 saves during a 5-1 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and won for the first time in five starts.
"Seattle has speed to get really good scoring chances but our goalie came up big," Arizona coach André Tourigny said. "[Vejmelka] made the difference. He made key saves at key moments and that's what you need sometimes. When you have a breakdown and your goalie makes a big save, after the game you remember it. Tonight he made those key saves and gave us a chance to bounce back right away."

Phil Kessel scored for the first time in 18 games and had an assist for the Coyotes (12-31-4), who had lost their previous two games.
Colin Blackwell and Calle Jarnkrok scored, and Philipp Grubauer made 22 saves for the Kraken (15-28-4), who are 0-2-0 against Arizona.
"We weren't sharp, we weren't clean with the puck," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "In reality, each of their three goals came off our sticks. … The rust showed, we're not making an excuse, but we weren't sharp when we didn't have the puck. That area of our game was not at the level it needed to be. Without the puck we weren't connecting as much as we are when it's going well."
Kessel gave Arizona a 1-0 lead at 4:07 of the first period after he intercepted an errant pass from Adam Larsson deep in the Seattle end, turned with the puck and slid it past Grubauer.
"It's no secret it's always better to play with the lead," Coyotes forward Alex Galchenyuk said. "When Kessel found that goal, me and [Lawson Crouse] were on the bench and saying 'he's feeling it right now'. He scored a big goal and that got the bench fired up. When you come into a game and you want to bounce back and you get on the lead right away, it's a completely different game."
The Coyotes made it 2-0 at 14:51 of the second period after Galchenyuk made a stretch pass to Nick Schmaltz, who scored on a wrist shot from the left circle.

Blackwell cut the Coyotes lead to 2-1 16 seconds into the third period on a wrist shot that hit off the crossbar and in.
"We had good looks," Blackwell said. "There's more we can do to generate more offense. We generated enough looks. That guy made a ton of big saves and we were getting pucks on net, but we need to get more chances. I think we need to do a better job of getting traffic."
The Kraken outshot the Coyotes 36-27 but were 0-for-2 on the power play.
"Our PK was more aggressive," Tourigny said. "We put more pressure, we created more turnovers, and they were uncomfortable against us. We killed big penalties so there's a lot to be happy about that."
Arizona quickly regained its two-goal lead at 1:52 when Anton Stralman scored on a loose puck that rebounded off traffic in front of the Seattle net.
The Kraken made it 3-2 at 15:52 when Jarnkrok scored after Yanni Gourde hit him with a cross-ice pass.
Galchenyuk scored an empty-net goal at 18:23 to make it 4-2 and Schmaltz added an empty-net goal at 19:00 to make it 5-2.
NOTES: Kessel scored his 397th NHL goal, three from becoming the 11th U.S.-born player to reach 400. … Seattle forward Riley Sheahan played his 600th NHL game. He had two shots on goal in 10:34 of ice time. … The Coyotes previously beat Seattle 5-4 at home on Nov 6.