Travis Boyd scored a pair of goals and the Arizona Coyotes claimed a fifth consecutive home victory with a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night in Tempe, Ariz.
Lawson Crouse also scored and goaltender Ivan Prosvetov made 29 saves for the Coyotes, who are riding a 5-0-2 run but are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson replied for the Canucks, who saw their five-game winning streak end. Thatcher Demko stopped 24 shots for Vancouver, which is also destined to miss the playoffs.
With his team trailing 1-0, Boyd kicked off the comeback by tying the game with 29.7 seconds remaining in the opening frame. Liam O’Brien prevented a clearing pass from leaving the zone, and Boyd buried a shot from the left circle.
Boyd’s power-play goal put the Coyotes ahead at the 12:44 mark of the second period. Upon gaining the puck in the left circle, Boyd zipped to the net and deposited a slick backhand for his third goal in the last two games and his 14th of the season.
With their assists on the goal, Clayton Keller has now collected 13 points (6-7-13) in a seven-game point streak and Barrett Hayton has netted 11 points (3-8-11) in a six-game streak.
Crouse scored the eventual winning goal — his 22nd goal of the season — 79 seconds into the third period. Victor Soderstrom sent a pass to Crouse beneath the left circle, and he buried the sharp-angled shot for the power-play tally.
Pettersson’s 31st of the season at 11:41 of the third period made it 3-2. Anthony Beauvillier created a turnover and the sequence ended with Pettersson converting from the right circle.
The Canucks pushed but couldn’t find the tying tally.
Kuzmenko gave Vancouver the lead, scoring for the fourth consecutive game, at the 5:14 mark of the first period. Pettersson intercepted a missed breakout pass to start a three-way passing play that included Beauvillier and ended with Kuzmenko’s tap-in tally for his 34th goal of the season.
Kuzmenko is riding a six-game streak with six goals and seven points, while Pettersson has nine points (3-6-9) in a six-game run.
Earlier in the day, the Coyotes signed Josh Doan. The 2021 second-round draft choice, who just completed his sophomore season at Arizona State University, is the son of franchise leading scorer Shane Doan.
–Field Level Media
