Local Sports

Coyotes Down Blackhawks in Shootout

Conor Garland and Nick Schmaltz scored on the Coyotes' first two attempts against Robin Lehner in the shootout, and Arizona rallied from two goals down to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on Sunday night.

 

Only Patrick Kane connected against Darcy Kuemper in the tiebreaker as the Coyotes improved to 5-2 in shootouts this season and finished a 3-1 road trip.

 

With 40 points, Arizona is tied for first in the Pacific with Edmonton, which lost 3-2 to Buffalo in overtime on Sunday.

 

Garland got his team-leading 12th goal in regulation, and Carl Soderberg and Christian Fischer also scored. Kuemper finished with 26 saves through overtime.

 

Jonathan Toews has a goal and two assists for his first three-point game this season. Alex DeBrincat and Dominik Kubalik also scored for injury-depleted Chicago, which played beyond regulation for the third straight game following an overtime win at Boston on Thursday and a shootout win at New Jersey the following night.

 

Lehner had 44 saves - including several sensational ones - but he lost for the first time in six career games (5-0-1) to Arizona.

 

A Vezina Trophy finalist with the Islanders last season, Lehner has been solid in net for Chicago so far, but is 0-3 in shootouts with the Blackhawks and 8-23 in the tiebreaker for his career. He last won a shootout on March 8, 2018, while he was with Buffalo.

 

Toews opened the scoring 53 seconds in. He connected on a backhand deflection of Calvin de Haan's soft cross-ice feed, despite being tied up with defenseman Jason Demers.

 

DeBrincat's power-play goal at 8:40 made it 2-0. The forward slipped behind Arizona's defense on the left side, took Kane's feed, then burst to the net and beat Kuemper high on the glove side.

 

Arizona cut to 2-1 at 11 minutes from a goalmouth scramble when Christian's Dvorak's feed from the left side of the net ticked in off Fischer's skate. Kubalik's midair deflection of Connor Murphy's shot from the left point with 2:05 left in the first restored Chicago's two-goal lead.

 

Garland and Soderberg scored power-play goals in the second to tie it at 3. Garland trimmed it to 3-2 at 6:32 on a wrist shot from the slot.

 

Chicago rookie defenseman Dennis Gilbert and Demers squared off in a free-swinging fight at 7:01. Gilbert was assessed an extra minor penalty for instigating, as well as a 10-minute misconduct.

Soderberg knotted it at 3 on the ensuing man advantage at 8:53 when his pass from right circle deflected off Chicago' defenseman Slater Koekkoek's stick and over Lehner's shoulder.

 

Lehner robbed Clayton Keller with a flashy glove save at 9:19 of the scoreless third to keep it tied. Keller was alone at the low edge of the right circle during Arizona's fifth straight power-play when he fired and Lehner reached to grab the shot.

 

The Blackhawks are at Vegas on Tuesday night to start a three-game trip.

Townhall Top of the Hour News

Local Weather - Sponsored By:

CLINTON WEATHER

Local News

DeWittDN on Facebook