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For the second straight game at Gila River Arena, the final score from Glendale was 6-1. Only on Saturday, it was the Coyotes who found themselves on the winning end of it.

Thanks in part to a three-point effort from Clayton Keller, and two points apiece from Derek Stepan, Nick Schmaltz and Richard Panik, the Coyotes collected their third consecutive win with a decisive five-goal victory over the St. Louis Blues.

The Coyotes, who scored four second-period goals in the rout, found themselves recipients of seven power plays in the game as the Blues never had the chance to establish momentum in the game.

“Guys came off the road and it’s tough to come back,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said of the Blues. “St. Louis had a tough game last night, they played great and they emptied the tank. I thought we jumped on them. We wanted to get a good start here. It’s something we were lacking the last few games and I thought guys were locked in. That’s the way we got to play and it was nice to see.”

The Coyotes scored first on their third power play of the period when Jakob Chychrun rifled one past Blues goaltender Chad Johnson at 12:27 of the first period. Keller managed to collect the puck after a failed clear by the Blues and found Chychrun all alone in the slot.

The goal was Chychrun’s first of the season after missing 18 of the team’s first 24 games recovering from offseason knee surgery.

The Blues posted 10 penalty minutes in the first period alone and allowed a bevy of chances to a Coyotes power play unit that showed a competent ability to move the puck and generate chances. Still, they netted just one goal out of their first-period chances on the man-advantage.

The Coyotes took a 2-0 lead just 58 seconds into the second period when Keller scored off a feed from newly acquired center Nick Schmaltz, who collected his fourth point in just three games with the Coyotes on Saturday.

“Nick Schmaltz really added what (John Chayka) acquired him for,” Tocchet said. “He’s a skilled guy, he’s poised with the puck and his lateral movement is excellent. I think the sky’s the limit on him, there’s another level to him and he’s done a nice job for us. We’re very excited to have him.”

Although the Blues answered back with a Robert Thomas goal at 1:26 of the second, Christian Fischer potted a loose puck at 2:59 to re-establish the Coyotes’ two-goal lead. It was Fischer’s sixth goal of the season and first since his hat trick on Oct. 23, a span of 17 games.

Later in the period, Derek Stepan found Nick Cousins with a cross-ice feed to beat Johnson for a 4-1 advantage. Cousins collected his second goal of the season on the play and Stepan notched his 12th point.

The Coyotes still weren’t done in the second period as Richard Panik converted on his fifth goal of the season off a second chance yielded by Johnson. Vinnie Hinostroza created the play and got off the initial shot, and Panik was in perfect position to clean up the rebound.

Keller fed Alex Goligoski for the Coyotes’ sixth goal of the night to tally his third point of the night and increase his team-leading point total to 18 for the season.

Michael Grabner was the victim of a gruesome high-sticking penalty by Blues forward Sammy Blais, who incidentally caught Grabner in the face with his stick on a follow-through. Grabner immediately fell to the ice in visible pain after contact and was helped to the training room. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game with what the team called an “upper-body injury.”

Goaltender Adin Hill, making his second consecutive start for the Coyotes, picked up his third win in as many games with a 24-save performance against the Blues. After notching his first career shutout on Thursday against the Nashville Predators, Hill was also the goaltender of record on Tuesday in Minnesota when he relieved Antti Raanta in the third period of that game.

“I thought I had a good game but once again our team did a great job boxing guys out and letting me see the puck,” Hill said. “I feel like I would have to control a couple more rebounds there but the guys did a good job clearing them out. It was an unreal game by the guys again.

“We carried that momentum from Minnesota through Nashville right to this game here at home. It was a great performance again by the guys who want to play a fast game. I think we did exactly that.”

Before allowing the lone St. Louis goal, Hill established a franchise record for the longest stretch to begin a season without allowing a goal (116 minutes, 23 seconds).

The Coyotes will head out on the road for a Tuesday night matchup with the Los Angeles Kings before returning home on Thursday ahead of a tilt with the Washington Capitals.

Den’s digest

The score: Coyotes 6, Blues 1.

The streak: W3.

The record: 12-11-2, 6th in Pacific.

The 82-game pace: 39-36-7, 85 points.

The player: Clayton Keller.

The moment: Keller’s goal just 58 seconds into the second period, off a feed from Nick Schmaltz.

The number: 7 — The number of consecutive periods in which Adin Hill has played. He has picked up three wins and allowed one goal over that span.

The quote: “I think it was like six times in a row I had the puck there, made a couple good plays. You know they were good in the shooting lanes, I was trying to get some pucks through. (Jakob) Chychrun had a nice shot there that was big for our power-play and if we can contribute every night even if were not scoring just making sure were gaining momentum and getting chances I think it’s going to be huge for our team.” — Coyotes center Nick Schmaltz.

View from the press box: This was a night-and-day performance from how the Coyotes ended their previous homestand, which was a 6-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. The Coyotes appear to be figuring things out behind the sparks of Nick Schmaltz and Adin Hill.

Song of the night: “Speed” by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Coyotes announce youth hockey curriculum

This week, the Coyotes announced a new physical education street hockey curriculum to be used in over 300 schools across Maricopa and Pima counties in Arizona this year.

In conjunction with the NHL, NHL Players’ Association, and the NHL’s Growth Industry Fund, the Coyotes expect the program to reach approximately 700 schools and over 500,000 students in the next few years.

“We are very excited about the Coyotes PE street hockey curriculum program,” Coyotes’ President & CEO Ahron Cohen said in a release. “Our hockey development department has done a tremendous job growing the game of hockey in Arizona, but we still have a lot of work to do. This program will allow us to get more sticks into the hands of kids and help educate them about our great game and promote youth health and wellness.

“We are grateful for the incredible support that we have received from all the Valley school districts and look forward to a great partnership in the future.”

Moreover, as part of the program, each school will receive $1,500 worth of Coyotes branded street hockey equipment consisting of 50 sticks, 50 balls, 50 pinnies, two hockey nets, a stick bag, a curriculum booklet, a student MVP Access Pass, a teacher’s gift backpack and a Coyotes “Raise the Pack” banner, according to the club.

“One of our core pillars as an organization is to positively impact our community,” Cohen said. “We see our street hockey PE curriculum as an opportunity to promote youth health and wellness by exposing the kids to hockey at an early age. … We’re grateful for the incredible support that we have received from all the Valley school districts and look forward to a great partnership in the future.” 

“We are proud to make this investment into our community so we can look back five and 10 years from now and see a long list of great hockey players coming out of Arizona who grew up playing hockey because of the opportunities this program provided to them.” 

READ MORE

  • Hill gets 1st NHL shutout as Coyotes top Predators 3-0
  • Arizona Coyotes mailbag: Does the team have a problem developing young players?
  • For Chandler native Lyndsey Fry, hockey odyssey has come full circle 

Richard Morin covers the Coyotes and Diamondbacks for azcentral sports. He can be reached at [email protected] and by phone at 480-316-2493. Follow him on Twitter @ramorin_azc.

 

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