ST. LOUIS (AP) — A tired Arizona Coyotes team showed what you can do on little sleep.
Nick Schmaltz and Conor Garland scored in the shootout, and the Coyotes snapped the St. Louis Blues’ seven-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory Tuesday night.
The Coyotes landed at 1 a.m. Tuesday after flying in from Washington, but waited more than two hours on the tarmac because there was no crew available to unload the plane. They finally got to their hotel rooms around 3:30 a.m.
“I’m proud of the guys,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “You guys know the circumstances. It’s been a tough schedule and not much sleep. That’s a hell of a hockey club over there. A little bit of rope-a-dope and it was nice to win this game.”
Exactly the kind of game Arizona wanted.
“We just wanted to make it a dirty, mucky game,” Garland said. “We didn’t want to get into a track meet with these guys, especially with how hard the game was last night, our schedule and everything. We just needed timely goal scoring and a big-time effort from (goalie Darcy) Kuemper and we got both.”
Garland’s power-play goal tied it 2-all at 5:58 of the third period. St. Louis native Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist against his hometown team.
“It’s special. I grew up coming to these games,” Keller said. “My dad had season tickets. It’s such a special feeling to get a win here, and also to score a goal here is pretty cool.”
Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko scored for the Blues, but the defending Stanley Cup champions dropped to 0-2 in shootouts this season.
Arizona improved to 3-0 in tiebreakers after winning in a shootout for the second consecutive night. The Coyotes topped Washington 4-3 on Monday.
“He is automatic right now,” Garland said about Schmaltz. “We like to talk about it and obviously before he just came up to me and said, ‘I see something. I’m going to try it.’ He was right, so I went on the other side.”
Kuemper made 33 saves for Arizona.
“I don’t think anyone felt good coming to the rink today, so it’s just guys making sure we focus on the details that we’ve been talking about,” Kuemper said. “Even though the legs aren’t there, guys are just working through it, and a gutsy win.”
St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington stopped 20 shots.
“We made a couple of mistakes,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “We probably should have won the game 2-0. We didn’t get it done.”
Garland took a pass from Christian Dvorak and scored on a tip-in early in the third. Keller also assisted on the goal.
Schwartz scored at 17:13 of the first. A pass through two Coyotes from Alex Pietrangelo set up Brayden Schenn, who fired a shot from the right circle. Kuemper blocked it but couldn’t corral it. Schwartz pounced on the loose puck in the crease and knocked it in for a 1-0 St. Louis lead.
Each team scored in the second period.
Keller intercepted David Perron’s pass and scored an unassisted goal on a wrist shot from the slot at 6:47 to tie it. Keller, an All-Star forward last season, signed an eight-year contract extension in September.
The Blues got the goal back when Parayko scored his first of the season at 15:41. Oskar Sundqvist hit a streaking Parayko just outside the blue line and he carried the puck and fired from the top of the right circle for a 2-1 lead.
“It’s good to get that one out of the way,” Parayko said. “We had some other chances but didn’t score. You can’t win every game. Bottom line is we’re getting points. Could we play better? Possibly. But at the same time, we’re getting points and that’s the biggest thing.”
NOTES: Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko, who recently sustained a left shoulder injury that is expected to sideline him for at least five months, attended the morning skate and said he is unsure if he’ll be able to play again this season. … Coyotes D Niklas Hjalmarsson remains out since Oct. 12 with a lower body injury. He has missed 15 games. … For the fourth consecutive year, Blues fans joined together in singing the national anthem as a show of support for veterans on the team’s Salute to Military Night. … Blues players wore special camouflage jerseys during warmups bearing the names of local Navy and Marines who have recently returned from serving overseas. The jerseys were to be given to the service members after the game.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
Blues: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.
Photo credit – Jeff Roberson / Associated Press / St. Louis, MO