Vejmelka makes 42 saves, Coyotes defeat Avalanche

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Karel Vejmelka made 42 saves, and the Arizona Coyotes ended the Colorado Avalanche's four-game winning streak with a 2-1 victory at Gila River Arena on Thursday.

Vejmelka, who was making his first start since Feb. 19, had lost seven of his past eight games.
"We know how they want to play. It's one of the best teams in the league," Vejmelka said. "They want to shoot from everywhere, but we played real well in in the D-zone. It was a big part of this game."
Nick Schmaltz scored the go-ahead goal in the third period for the Coyotes (15-35-4), who finished 2-1-1 against the Avalanche.
It is the most points (five) Arizona has earned against a team this season.
"I just I don't think there's any quit in our room. I think guys take a lot of pride and bring it every night," Schmaltz said. "You can't take any nights off. It's a hard league, so any team can beat any team on any given night."

Devon Toews scored, and Pavel Francouz made 27 saves for the Avalanche (40-11-4), who lead the NHL in points (84) and points percentage (.763).
"They played us hard and played stingy in all the games we played against them," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "They played us tough. You've got to give them credit. They're improving as a team as the year goes on, and I did not think we took them lightly.
"You want to win them all, you want to get after them, but on this particular night, we just didn't do enough to win the hockey game. And their goaltender made a big difference for them."
The Avalanche's top line of Andre Burakovsky, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen was limited to one assist by MacKinnon, who had four excellent scoring chances denied in the first 30 minutes.
"I don't think we were bad today. We had some breakdowns that caused a couple of goals, and that's the hockey game," Rantanen said. "We had some really good chances. We could have easily scored on a good night probably six goals, but that's hockey."
Arizona coach Andre Tourigny constantly matched his fourth line of Antoine Roussel, Christian Fischer and Lawson Crouse against the MacKinnon line or Colorado's second line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Alex Newhook.
"They played against the best all night tonight," Tourigny said. "You don't have a break. You don't have a breather any time you go on the ice. It's a lot of urgency. It's a key moment every time. They were rock solid and physical and they brought momentum."

Schmaltz put Arizona in front 2-1 at 5:27 of the third period. He received a pass from Clayton Keller after he got behind Newhook and slid the puck past Francouz's outstretched right pad as he cut across the crease.
"It started with a breakout," Schmaltz said. "I kind of took off and 'Kells' made a great pass, and I just tried to take it to the backhand and wait the goalie out and slip it in."
Toews gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 5:48 of the second period with a wrist shot from the left point off a cross-ice pass from Cale Makar. Makar has 15 assists during a 10-game assist streak, the longest by a defenseman in Avalanche history.
Loui Eriksson tied it 1-1 at 18:11 with his second goal of the season. J.J. Moser's backhand shot deflected to Eriksson, who scored from below the right circle with a wrist shot off the left post.
NOTES:It was Colorado's first regulation loss in a one-goal game (12-0-4) and when scoring first (30-0-3) this season. … Coyotes forward Matias Maccelli played 14:45 in his NHL debut. He was a fourth-round pick (No. 98) in the 2019 NHL Draft and is the eighth rookie to make his debut for Arizona this season, one shy of its record.