| ST. PAUL Brian Elliott Jersey , Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Wild are fighting to stay in the playoff hunt. Their opponent Thursday night, the Arizona Coyotes, are as far outside of the playoff picture as possible.That might not have been readily apparent based on the result at Xcel Energy Center.Clayton Keller scored Arizona’s fourth straight goal at 3:55 of overtime to give the Coyotes a 4-3 comeback victory. Arizona snapped a four-game losing streak.”That was a good, gutsy win,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. ”We picked up the pace, we had puck possession and guys started believing what we were doing out there.”The 19-year-old Keller also had the winner Dec. 22 against Washington.Nick Cousins scored twice for Arizona, which entered the game with the worst record in the NHL. Cousins’ second goal tied it with 18.3 seconds remaining in regulation after Arizona pulled goalie Antti Raanta for an extra attacker.”With the goalie pulled anything can happen, so it was nice to get one there,” Cousins said. ”I think they were on their heels there in the third period and that was probably one of our better periods of the season.”Kevin Connaughton also scored for Arizona Womens Claude Giroux Jersey , and Raanta stopped 25 shots.Though Minnesota scored the first three goals, the Wild admitted after the game it didn’t feel like a 3-0 lead. Minnesota was outshot through two periods and was sloppy on both ends of the ice.”I don’t know how to explain it. It shouldn’t happen. It can’t happen,” said Wild forward Zach Parise. ”Right now in the race that we’re in and that we’re going to be in for the rest of the year, it’s a tough point to lose.”Eric Staal, Matt Cullen and Mike Reilly scored to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead, and Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves.Staal opened the scoring with 2:47 to play in the first period with his team-leading 24th goal. Staal fired a pass from Jared Spurgeon top shelf past Raanta.Cullen, the Wild’s 41-year-old forward, made it 2-0 early in the second period on a breakaway.The Wild were without defenseman Jonas Brodin on Thursday after Brodin suffered a broken hand Tuesday against St. Louis. In Brodin’s absences, Minnesota’s young defenseman such as Reilly and Gustav Olofsson will have a chance to gain some additional ice time.Reilly took advantage Thursday http://www.flyersshoponline.com/authentic-ivan-provorov-jersey , scoring his first goal of the season and just the third of his NHL career. Reilly grabbed a loose puck out of the air and set it on the ice before firing from the faceoff circle past Raanta.Arizona clawed back with three unanswered goals in regulation. Cousins buried a cross-ice pass from Alex Goligoski for the Coyotes’ first goal midway through the second period. Connaughton’s goal 8:02 into the third made it a one-goal game.The Coyotes came to St. Paul with just 12 wins on the season, while Minnesota’s 27 wins and 59 points had the Wild hovering on the cusp of the top eight spots in the Western Conference.Thursday’s overtime loss was a point the Wild felt they should have had.”That’s not good enough. Pretty simple. That was the message after the game and the message from here on in,” said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. ”You’re fighting for your playoff lives and you come up and you blow a 3-0 lead to a team that isn’t going to be in the playoffs. You can’t be successful if you do that.”NOTES: Minnesota made a trade Thursday, acquiring defenseman Viktor Loov from the New Jersey Devils. The Wild sent forwards Christoph Bertschy and Mario Lucia to New Jersey in exchange for Loov. … Coyotes D Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a minus-1 in Thursday’s win and is now a league-worst minus-41 on the season. … Arizona D Luke Schenn and F Christian Fischer were both scratched Thursday for just the third time each this year.UP NEXTWild: Host Chicago on Saturday night.Coyotes: Host Flyers on Saturday night. ST. LOUIS (AP) All Vladimir Tarasenko had to do was wait.Tarasenko scored his second goal of the game in overtime to lift the St. Louis Blues over the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Tuesday night.Tarasenko got a nifty backhanded pass from Vladimir Sobotka, who fought off Mikkel Boedker behind the net for the puck. Sobotka skated in front of the net, and then passed the puck to Tarasenko, who was on the left side of the goal.The Blues’ leading goal scorer did the rest, tipping in the winner at 2:33.It was Tarasenko’s 31st goal, and he has 30 or more in four consecutive seasons. The last Blue to do that was Brett Hull Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids , who did it for six straight seasons from 1988 to 1994.”I knew he would make this pass,” Tarasenko said. ”I’m not sure he heard me or no, but he’s a great player. I just expect the plays like this from him. Obviously the great play, easy tap-in goal.””That’s an unreal play,” St. Louis coach Mike Yeo said. ”This team works for what it gets and that play exemplified it.”Tarasenko has six goals and six assists in his last 11 games against San Jose.San Jose goalie Aaron Dell said he guessed wrong on the play.”He’s a good player,” Dell said about Tarasenko. ”I thought he was going to go short side but he went far side and just made a good shot.”St. Louis has won a season-best six straight games. Four of those wins have come in overtime, all in the last 11 days.”I mean overtime is fun when it’s 3 on 3,” Tarasenko said.The win moved the Blues back into a wild-card spot.”Desperate hockey,” Yeo said. ”We’re still in a dire situation.”San Jose had won eight straight before the loss.”I thought the guys dug deep and found a way to get a valuable point Youth Jordan Weal Jersey ,” San Jose coach Peter Deboer said.Oskar Sundqvist also scored for St. Louis, and Jake Allen made 22 saves.Evander Kane and Joe Pavelski scored for San Jose. Dell stopped 29 shots.Kane drew first blood for the Sharks with his 29th goal. Melker Karlsson fed Kane, who put a wrist shot off Allen’s glove at 6:26. Kane has nine goals and five assists in 14 games since he was acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 26.Brent Burns got the second assist, giving him 50. He became the first Sharks defenseman to record 50 assists in a season.St. Louis tied it when Sundqvist threw the puck on net and it sneaked in at 17:43. Ivan Barbashev was parked in front of the crease and helped screen Dell, who got a piece of the puck.”That was the blueprint for the way we needed to win this hockey game,” Yeo said.It was Sundqvist’s second goal in 65 career games, including 37 with the Blues. Sundqvist’s only other goal came April 2, 2016, when he was with Pittsburgh.”It’s been a long time since I scored Scott Laughton Jersey ,” Sundqvist said. ”Actually, I didn’t know what to do. It’s a relief.”The teams traded power-play goals in the second period.The Sharks took a 2-1 lead on one by Pavelski. Standing beside the net, Pavelski got a pass from Burns and tapped it in for his 20th.Tarasenko tied for St. Louis. He got a perfect leading pass from Brayden Schenn in the left circle, then snapped a quick wrist shot to tie it.The Blues missed a chance to take the lead about two minutes into the third period when Barbashev skated in and had Dell beat but hit the post with his shot.NOTES: San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow left in the first period and did not return. The team said he has an upper body injury. … Blues D Alex Pietrangelo had an assist on Tarasenko’s goal. That gave him 52 points for the season, a career high. … Allen made his 10th straight start for the Blues. … Dell got his first start in five games after San Jose played at the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday and won in a shootout. … Blues backup goalie Carter Hutton returned after being out with a neck injury since March 8. … The Blues are 1-2-0 against the Sharks this season.UP NEXT:Sharks: At Nashville on Thursday night.Blues: At Vegas on Friday night.— |
