Late mistakes, blown chances sting Arizona Coyotes in OT loss to Ottawa Senators

The ingredients for a Coyotes win were present.

Ample shots on goal.

Steady goaltending from Mike Smith.

And a lead in the third period.

But the combination still wasn’t enough as the Senators overcame all three to rally past the Coyotes for a 3-2 overtime win Thursday at Gila River Arena – a recipe that might not have flopped if three situations panned out differently.

“You’d like to win that game,” coach Dave Tippett said. “But we didn’t.”

BOX SCORE: Senators 3, Coyotes 2 (OT)

Ottawa sealed its comeback just 40 seconds into the extra period on a 2-on-0 breakaway led by captain Erik Karlsson, who kept the shot and sent the puck glove-side on Smith.

Earlier in the sequence, the Coyotes had possession in the Senators’ zone before a drop pass from winger Radim Vrbata skipped by defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson – leading to the odd-man rush.

“I gave it to Vrby and he tried to drop it back to me, and I looked up for a second and I missed the puck,” Ekman-Larsson said. “That happens sometimes. Everybody’s trying to make plays out there. If you don’t, you’re not going to get the chances. Unfortunately, it went that way today but we’re finding ways to lose games right now. Have to keep working hard and try to get better.”

The Senators extended the game to overtime after Karlsson tied it at 2 at 12:47 of the third period when he buried a loose puck that bounced out to the back post.

“A bad break,” Tippett said. “Goes off (defenseman Connor) Murphy’s skate and across the crease to an open guy.”

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Tippett said the coverage breakdown happened earlier when Murphy and center Christian Dvorak were beat to the inside while in the corner. After that, “chaos” ensued in front of the net.

“Their guy goes and throws it at one side of the net, hits Murphy’s skate and goes to the other side of the net,” Tippett said. “That’s a bounce that could get taken away if we do our job in the corner, but we didn’t so that’s the repercussions of not doing that job.”

Arizona had a glorious chance to grow its lead earlier in the period when it had consecutive power plays, including a brief 5-on-3 look, but it blanked on both chances. The unit finished the game 0-for-4.

“That’s where you’d like to see your power play go out and seize that and get that third one and put the game away,” Tippett said. “We didn’t do that and came back to bite us.”

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Nine of the team’s 41 total shots came with the man advantage, but all the Coyotes’ offense was limited to the second period. They opened the scoring 11:30 into the frame after winger Tobias Rieder banked the puck off the boards and winger Brendan Perlini scooped it up to skate into the Ottawa zone and wire a shot five-hole on goalie Mike Condon for Perlini’s first goal in 10 games.

“I knew all night long that their ‘D’ were going to be stepping up, so hopefully I could just get one of those,” Perlini said. “Luckily I did. Just drove wide and tried to get it on net and luckily it snuck five-hole.”

But only 41 seconds later, the Senators tied it when center Jean-Gabriel Pageau roofed a rebound over Smith.

With 2:11 to go in the period, the Coyotes reinstated their lead on a wrap-around by winger Lawson Crouse that just barely bounced over the goal line.

But not squeezing more out of the period or converting on its chances in the third proved costly, a slim margin of error that the young team is still reconciling late in the season.

“We had opportunities to win that game,” Tippett said.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.

Report

Key player

Senators captain Erik Karlsson scored twice and added an assist.

Key moment

Karlsson sealed a 3-2 overtime win for the Senators with his breakaway goal 40 seconds into the extra period.

Key number

0 power-play goals by the Coyotes in four tries.

View from the press box

Arizona’s power play dropped to 3-for-39 over its last 13 games after its 0-for-4 showing against Ottawa, a grim performance for almost the past month. The unit did manage to get pucks on net this game, which was a struggle last time out, but the execution still isn’t there. And in a game like this one where some of the opportunities came at pivotal times, not capitalizing might have been the difference between gaining just one point instead of two.