Coyotes Game 24 Recap: Coyotes fall 7-1 to Golden Knights

Game Recap

The Arizona Coyotes knew they were going to have a tough matchup last night. The Vegas Golden Knights have played extremely well against the Coyotes in the past, and they were looking to get points after a slow start due to injuries.

The first period was rough, but probably still the Coyotes’ best. Vegas struck first when they took advantage of a bad line change and came in on a 2-on-1. Nicolas Roy beat Kyle Capobianco and passed the puck to Jonathan Marchessault, who stretched out Karel Vejmelka and put the puck into a wide-open net.

Arizona had a good response, and only 53 seconds later the game was tied. The Coyotes had their own 2-on-1, and Clayton Keller was able to get the puck over to Travis Boyd who put it in the back of the net.

It was nice to see the Coyotes have a good response, especially after watching them collapse after giving up a goal.

Vegas would retake the lead midway through the period on a power play goal, and the period would end with Vegas on another power play. The Coyotes start the second down 2-1 and needing to kill a minute and 34 seconds of a Christian Fischer cross-checking penalty.

The Coyotes would kill the penalty, and get a power play of their own almost immediately after it expired. And for a while, it looked like things were going to be close.

Unfortunately, things would quickly go downhill. It would start at 6:04 into the second period when Max Pacioretty was called for roughing Ryan Dzingel. Vegas’ penalty kill was extremely aggressive, and Chandler Stephenson was able to extend Vegas’ lead with their third short-handed goal in two games.

Things went from bad to worse when Max Pacioretty left the penalty box, collected a pass from Mark Stone, and came in all alone on Vejmelka. Pacioretty is one of the better goal scorers in the league, so it was no surprise to see him beat Vejmelka and extend the Vegas lead to 4-1.

Vegas would score two more goals before the second period expired, with Michael Amadio getting his first goal of the season and Evgenii Dadonov getting his sixth. Going into the third the Coyotes had dug themselves a deep hole, and it was unlikely they were going to come back after being down 6-1.

The fourth period would feature two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey when Liam O’Brien was called for cross-checking and Alex Pietrangelo took a roughing call. O’Brien was trying to give the team some kind of energy, and 29 seconds after leaving the box he dropped the gloves with Keegan Kolesar.

The Coyotes would get another power play opportunity, but they couldn’t make anything happen. But Vegas wasn’t able to score short-handed either, and after the second period that is a bit of an improvement.

Vegas would get a late goal from Nicolas Roy, and thankfully, the game was over. The Coyotes started well, but another poor second period doomed the Desert Dogs. Over the span of fewer than eight minutes, the Coyotes went from being down 2-1 to being in a 6-1 hole, one that they weren’t going to recover from.

Arizona seemed like they had gotten past the blowout loses, but they still had one left in them. Hopefully, they have finally gotten that out of their system with a 7-1 loss.

Lines

Three Stars

1. Max Pacioretty - 2 goals
2. Nicolas Roy - A goal and an assist
3. Travis Boyd - 1 goal

Next Game

The Coyotes are heading back on the road and they will face the Dallas Stars on Monday at 6:30 pm Arizona time.