Wild score 4 in 3rd, surge past Coyotes

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Mats Zuccarello had three assists, and the Minnesota Wild scored four straight goals in the third period to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 5-2 at Mullett Arena on Thursday.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for the Wild (30-27-6), who have won two straight after losing three in a row. Joel Eriksson Ek scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had an assist, and Brock Faber also had a goal and an assist.

“`Flower’ was great. He made some huge saves for us, and that’s what he does. He battles, he competes,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought `Zucc’ was in it to win it tonight. It was a game where we had to get two points, and he was a big factor in it.”

Clayton Keller and Michael Carcone scored for the Coyotes (25-33-5), who are 2-14-2 in their past 18 games. Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.

“I thought it was a good game, we played well. We had Grade-A chances, but their goalie made some really good saves on those Grade-A chances,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said.

Kirill Kaprizov gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 1:51 of the second period, putting in his own rebound on a power play. It was his 30th goal of the season, and fourth in two games.

Jacob Lucchini appeared to score for Minnesota at 6:59, but it was overturned after Arizona successfully challenged the play for offside.

Keller tied it 1-1 at 1:21 of the third period on a power play. Nick Schmaltz’s shot from the right point deflected off Arizona forward Barrett Hayton to Keller along the goal line.

Carcone scored seven seconds later with a wrist shot inside the far post to put Arizona ahead 2-1.

“Unfortunately, they got a couple of bounces there and got a couple of goals, and then it's uphill, but we managed to get out of it pretty quick, and then it was good,” Zuccarello said. “We gave them some odd-man rushes (after that), but [Fleury] stood tall and kept us in the game.”

Said Fleury: “Seven seconds? That’s pretty quick. But I liked that nobody panicked. You just deal with it. After that, we got a couple of quick goals. I liked how we didn’t overthink it.”

Zach Bogosian scored 32 seconds later to tie it 2-2. It was his first goal in 23 games.

The Coyotes unsuccessfully challenged that Lucchini interfered with Vejmelka.

“I saw Ryan (Hartman) kind of going towards the net," Bogosian said. "[I was] maybe looking for a rebound, and he made a really nice play and kicked it out to me, and luckily, I was able to put it in the net."

Eriksson Ek put the Wild back in front 3-2 at 7:16 with a wrist shot from the high slot over Vejmelka’s blocker.

“We had two turnovers in the third that cost us our lead,” Tourigny said.

Faber scored an empty-net goal at 18:48 to push it to 4-2, and Connor Dewar scored into another empty net at 19:33 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: The Coyotes held forward Jason Zucker and defenseman Matt Dumba out of the game for trade-related reasons. Nick Bjugstad missed the game for the expected birth of his child. … Arizona defenseman Patrik Koch had four hits in 9:20 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Faber has 36 points (five goals, 31 assists) this season, tying Marian Gaborik for the third-most by a rookie in Wild history. … Kaprizov is the third player in Wild history with three straight 30-goal seasons, joining Gaborik (2005-06 to 2007-08) and Brian Rolston (2005-06 to 2007-08). … Wild defenseman Jake Middleton missed the game with an upper-body injury. … Before the game, the Wild traded forward Brandon Duhaime to the Avalanche. Minnesota plays Colorado in the second game of a back-to-back Friday.