Dylan Guenther celebrated his 21st birthday by scoring once in a career-best, four-point performance and Logan Cooley scored the overtime winner in a two-point outing to lead the visiting Arizona Coyotes to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
On a day when reports circulated of a potential plan that would see the Coyotes sold and relocated to Salt Lake City, Vladislav Kolyachonok collected one goal and one assist and Josh Brown also scored for Arizona (34-40-5, 73 points). Goaltender Connor Ingram made 23 saves.
J.T. Miller, Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson scored for the Canucks (48-22-9, 105 points). Goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 14 shots. Defenseman Quinn Hughes collected three assists, giving him 91 points this season.
The Canucks have a four-point edge over the Edmonton Oilers for the top spot in the Pacific Division, but the Oilers have played two fewer games.
After Vancouver’s Filip Hronek failed to convert a penalty shot in overtime, Cooley drove to the net for a pass from Guenther and buried his 19th goal of the season at 3:51 of extra time.
Arizona surrendered a 3-1, third-period lead but rebounded to earn its third win in four outings.
The Coyotes opened the scoring thanks to Brown’s rebound tally at 5:46 of the second period, his third of the season. Miller evened the score with his 36th at 18:32 of the middle period by slipping home a loose puck.
Miller extended his point-scoring streak to nine games, in which he has collected three goals and nine assists.
Kolyachonok, summoned from the minors earlier in the day, restored Arizona’s lead with 32 seconds remaining in the frame thanks to a long point shot for his first of the campaign.
Guenther made it a 3-1 lead at 1:55 of the third period with a tap-in tally set up by Cooley for his 15th goal of the season.
Garland cut Vancouver’s deficit to one at 11:18 of the third period when he converted Nils Hoglander’s pass for his 19th goal of the campaign.
Pettersson’s power-play goal, a rocket of a shot from the right faceoff dot with 3:42 remaining in regulation time, his 34th of the season, forced overtime.
–Field Level Media
