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The Arizona Coyotes exploded for three goals in less than 3-½ minutes of the second period, and held on for a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Goalie Antti Raanta stopped 40 shots as the Coyotes (10-9-3) won their fourth straight road game in their first away game since Feb. 8.

Clayton Keller was first with the scoring, with the Coyotes’ first power play goal in four games. 

After the Kings responded with Drew Doughty’s power play goal to tie it at 1, Arizona tallied again on the power play. Nick Schmaltz put in his first goal since Feb. 13, a span of seven games. 

It took only 13 seconds after that for Johan Larsson to take advantage of a turnover in the Coyotes’ offensive zone and score his second goal in as many games and third of the season. 

Raanta, making his second straight start in goal and fifth of the season, improved to 3-1-1 on the season and is 6-0-1 in his career against the Kings.

The Coyotes came out with physical play, perhaps in an effort to set a tone with leading points scorer and often-hit forward Conor Garland back in the lineup after missing one game with a minor lower body injury. 

That was possibly the result of Garland being slammed to the ice on Friday when the Coyotes lost to the Colorado Avalanche. Garland’s teammates didn’t offer a serious response.

This time, Tyler Pitlick and Ilya Lyubushkin delivered crunching hits early in the game

Pitlick got the Coyotes going early. Off a turnover, Christian Dvorak fed Pitlick in front of the net, but Pitlick’s wide open backhand shot missed wide. 

Raanta also came up with an athletic save on the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, another highlight of the first period. 

The Coyotes were out-shot 42-23 for the game and 18-4 in the third period. Gabe Vilardi converted one of those shots with 6:13 to play to make it 3-2. 

But the Coyotes were able to hold on for their fourth overall road win, with Raanta stopping a shot with his helmet late in the game. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick left the net for an extra attacker with just under a minute to play, then Raanta glove-saved a shot by Doughty with 44.8 seconds left.

Coyotes veteran defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, playing in his 800th career game, blocked two shots to give him 1,566 for his career, which is in the top 20 all-time in NHL history.

Up Next

The Coyotes return home for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, the first games of the season against them. Arizona is 6-6-3 at home this season. 

Get in touch with Jose Romero at [email protected]. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.