Coyotes’ Rally Comes Up Short Against Vegas on Thursday

STATS

Jason Zucker and Clayton Keller scored and Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves in relief of Connor Ingram, but the Arizona Coyotes fell 3-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights at Mullett Arena on Thursday.

Jonathan Marchessault, Nicolas Hague, and Chandler Stephenson scored for the Golden Knights, who have won four of their last five games. Adin Hill made 20 saves to earn his 14th win of the season.

The game also marked forward Barrett Hayton’s first time back in the lineup since suffering an upper-body injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 16, and he logged 13:17 of ice time while centering a line between Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther.

“I’ve been chomping at the bit a while now to get back and compete,” Hayton said. “Obviously every game through this stretch is so important, so it really kills you missing games and not being able to go out there and help the team.”

Hayton finished 8-for-10 in the faceoff circle, and head coach André Tourigny said the line he was on played well, especially early on.

“You could see he’s a detailed guy. He helped us tonight, he’s got good legs under him,” Tourigny said. “I think they had an unbelievable first period, OK second, and they faded down a little bit in the third, but I’m sure they will work.”

Thursday’s game also marked the return of defensemen Matt Dumba and Travis Dermott, who each missed time before the All-Star break due to injuries. Dumba logged 19:21 of total ice time while Dermott recorded 18:38, and both finished with a plus-1 rating.

Dumba had not played since facing the Penguins on Jan. 22.

“Personally, I felt good,” Dumba said. “I’m working hard to get ready and get back to it here in the second half.”

Vegas, which snapped the Edmonton Oilers’ 16-game winning streak on Tuesday, jumped ahead early, scoring twice in the game’s first 1:17 to race out to a 2-0 lead.

Marchessault opened the scoring just 19 seconds in, finishing a 2-on-1 break with Ivan Barbashev, before Hague made it 2-0 58 seconds later with a shot from the point that took a funny bounce before finding its way past Ingram.

“We have to be more dialed in,” Hayton said. “Especially with them having a game on Tuesday, they’re sharp, and that game on Tuesday was a huge game. We just have to be prepared and focus on the details more.”

Zucker brought the Coyotes to within a goal at 4:07 of the first, redirecting Juuso Välimäki’s shot from the blue line past Hill.

Stephenson restored Vegas’ two-goal lead just over two minutes later, firing a shot past Ingram to record his 10th goal of the season. Karlsson appeared to make it 4-1 with a power-play tally, but it was determined following a review that he batted the puck with his hand off Ingram’s back, nullifying the goal.

Ingram had already been replaced by Vejmelka, who ultimately stayed in net following the review and went on to stop all 26 shots he faced in the game.

“He was unbelievable,” Hayton said. “Every guy in this room is frustrated with the way we hung Ingy out to dry at the start. Veggie came in, he kicked, made a couple huge saves there in the first half of the game that really kept us in it and gave us an opportunity to fight and try to get that comeback.”

Keller scored his 21st of the season to make it 3-2 at 3:40 of the third period, finishing a breakaway to bring the Coyotes to within one, and the goal tied him with Oliver Ekman-Larsson for eighth-most points in franchise history.

Arizona was unable to find the equalizer, though, and now heads to Nashville to face the Predators on Saturday, trailing them by five points in the Central Division.

“It’s huge, especially with the Central matchups – they’re four-point games from here on out,” Dumba said. “We have to get all of those points. It’s a big start to our road trip, and we’ll hopefully carry it over into Philly.”

Puck drop against Nashville is scheduled for 6 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on Arizona 61 (TV) and Arizona Sports 98.7 (Radio, subject to change).