Coyotes defeat Blues, win consecutive games for first time this season

ST. LOUIS -- Jakob Chychrun scored twice for the Arizona Coyotes in a 3-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for the Coyotes (5-5-1), who won consecutive games for the first time this season.
"We stuck with it. It was a back-and-forth game," Keller said. "A lot of guys stepped up. ... It was a great game, 'Kuemps' played awesome and it was good to close that one out."
Robert Thomas scored before leaving with an upper-body injury, and Ville Husso made 16 saves for the Blues (7-4-1), who have lost two straight for the first time this season.
"We were fighting it; you could tell we weren't clean, especially off the start," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "Little plays we didn't connect on, I think it got in our heads a bit. You could tell we had the right intention, but it wasn't strong. I think we were hesitating just a little bit too much and not trusting ourselves."

The teams were rescheduled by the NHL to play the third of four straight games against each other here. The Blues won the opener 4-3 on Tuesday, and the Coyotes won 4-3 on Thursday. They play again Monday.
Keller scored a power-play goal to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead at 10:44 when he skated past Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist and slipped a puck through Husso's pads.
"I've had a lot of chances the last couple games," Keller said. "For whatever reason, they just weren't going in, but you stick with it. I thought I had a really good practice [Friday] and I think it translated over."

The Coyotes scored first for the third time in this series when Chychrun made it 1-0 at 2:50 of the first period on Arizona's first shot. Thomas tied it 1-1 75 seconds later on a backhand from below the goal line.
Chychrun scored an empty-net goal with 26 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final.
Arizona limited St. Louis to 14 shots over the final two periods.
"The guys did a good job in front of me," Kuemper said. "We were good at all ends of the rink. Power play was working, [penalty kill] was working, everything that we wanted. It was a huge win."
Thomas left the game with 10:24 remaining in the first period after falling on his left wrist after being tripped by Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz. Blues coach Craig Berube did not have an update on his status.
"He had a great shift there with [Ivan] Barbashev and [Oskar] Sundqvist and yeah, it's unfortunate," Berube said. "I feel bad for Robert, really bad. He's had a tough start (to the season), but I was convinced he was going to work his way out of it, and now it's an injury, so it's unfortunate."
NOTES: Arizona was scheduled to play the Minnesota Wild on Saturday and Sunday, and St. Louis was scheduled to play the Colorado Avalanche. Wild games are postponed through Feb. 9, and Avalanche games are postponed through Feb. 11 due to NHL COVID-19 protocol issues with each team. This game and on Monday were rescheduled from March 29 and 31. ... The Coyotes will play the Blues six straight games, the first time in NHL history a team will play an opponent that many times in a row during the regular season. ... Coyotes forward Drake Caggiula left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. ... Blues forward Zach Sanford (flu) did not play. ... Blues center Tyler Bozak (upper body) was placed on injured reserve Saturday.