Arizona Falls to Toronto in Final Game of Homestand

STATS

Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, and Dylan Guenther scored, but the Arizona Coyotes fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at Mullett Arena on Wednesday.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander scored twice, Bobby McMann and John Tavares each added goals, and Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves to earn his 13th win of the season. The Maple Leafs have won five straight games, and six of their last seven overall.

Arizona and Toronto meet once more this season, on Feb. 29 in Toronto.

“Discipline is the story of the first period,” head coach André Tourigny said. “Then we crawled back, we showed a lot of character and came back in the game. That was a positive.”

McMann opened the scoring at 1:56 of the first period, redirecting T.J. Brodie’s shot in close to make 1-0. Matthews made it 2-0 with a power-play goal just over three minutes later, notching his 50th goal of the season in the process, and Nylander gave the Maple Leafs a three-goal cushion at 15:27, notching a power-play goal during a 5-on-3 man advantage.

That capped a first period in which the Coyotes took 10 minutes of penalties.

Maccelli got the Coyotes on the board at 4:28 of the second period, wristing a shot past Samsonov to make it 3-1. Hayton made it 3-2 just over a minute later, with his third goal of the season, redirecting Alex Kerfoot’s shot in front of Samsonov to bring the Coyotes to within a goal.

“Even from the start, we were pretty solid 5-on-5, it’s just, you can’t get any momentum and think that you’re going to give yourself an opportunity to win when you’re in the penalty box for 10 minutes in the first,” Hayton said. “We played 5-on-5 in the second, and it showed that we could play with them. We were able to fight back.”

Matthews then scored his second of the game at 16:07 after the puck bounced off his chest in close before sneaking past Vejmelka. Guenther responded with a power-play goal as time was winding down in the second, one-timing a pass from the high slot past Samsonov to make it 4-3.

Nylander scored his second of the game two minutes into the third period, corralling the puck just as he exited the penalty box before beating Vejmelka to make it 5-3. Tavares rounded out the scoring at 8:24 of the third, finishing off a 2-on-1 for his 16th goal of the season.

“Our discipline in the first period cost us the game, basically,” Tourigny said. “It did not allow us to have a fair match and go toe-to-toe with them. When you’re down 3-0, and you give a chance for their best players to feel good about themselves and have opportunities to score, now you’re looking for trouble.”

Arizona hits the road for five games, beginning in Winnipeg on Sunday. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on Arizona 61 (TV) and ESPN 620 (Radio).