Short-handed Coyotes fall to Dallas Stars in overtime

DALLAS – The Coyotes didn’t just have to change their lineup for their final road game of the season Tuesday.

They also had to redesign their wardrobe, ensuring three available players were wearing ‘A’s on their jerseys as alternate captains.

“When you go into a game and you have to put three assistant captains on – you’re losing all three – you’ve got some turnover,” coach Dave Tippett said.

Despite missing their leading scorer, best defenseman and captain, otherwise known as their leadership crew, the Coyotes rallied late to call for extra time before slipping 3-2 in overtime to the Stars at American Airlines Center to wrap their road schedule at 12-24-5.

“It was a learning curve for everyone,” winger Max Domi said.

Arizona was without defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, winger Radim Vrbata and captain Shane Doan.

BOX SCORE: Stars 3, Coyotes 2 (OT)

This was Ekman-Larsson’s first absence of the season, and he’ll also miss the Coyotes’ final two games as he’s returned to Sweden following the death of his mother.

Vrbata had also skated in every game until Tuesday. He’s day-to-day with a lower-body injury, an issue Tippett said has been bothering Vrbata for a little while.

“Just didn’t want to take the chance of hurting it any worse today,” Tippett said.

As for Doan, he’s also day-to-day with a lower-body injury. This isn’t the same groin injury that sidelined Doan recently for seven games, Tippett said, as his latest setback came up during Sunday’s game against the Kings.

“He was hurting a little bit this morning and just decided to keep him out,” Tippett said. “Just wanted to make sure.”

Tippett isn’t sure if both will be able to suit up Thursday at home against the Canucks, the team’s second-to-last game.

“Hopefully they can play on Thursday, but we’ll see,” he said.

Without those three on the ice, the Coyotes had defensemen Alex Goligoski and Luke Schenn and winger Jamie McGinn act as alternate captains – three of the team’s veterans – but it was the Coyotes’ youth that had its fingerprints all over the game.

MORE:Oliver Ekman-Larsson played with ‘heavy heart’

Arizona fell into a first-period hole after a pair of turnovers by defenseman Anthony DeAngelo. After center Christian Dvorak won a defensive-zone faceoff, DeAngelo’s clearing pass landed right on winger Brett Ritchie’s stick and Ritchie – who was planted in front of the net – wired the puck by goalie Mike Smith at 13:54. Later, with 2:48 to go in the period, DeAngelo whiffed on a pass and winger Adam Cracknell kicked the puck out to center Jason Dickinson, who skated in alone on Smith to make it 2-0.

“Unacceptable plays,” DeAngelo said. “The second one was kind of just lost it, but the first one I can’t make that play. I feel like the loss was on me tonight.”

The Coyotes got one goal back on the next shift with Dvorak one-timing a loose puck by goalie Antti Niemi at 17:24. Winger Clayton Keller earned the primary assist on the play, his second career point in his third NHL game, as Keller returned to the lineup after sitting out the last two games.

“He’s a good little player, but he’s really, really young,” Tippett said. “The first couple games he played against St. Louis. St. Louis is a big, heavy team, but he played all right. He got some puck touches tonight. You can tell he’s high-skill, high intelligence, but we’ll continue to feel him out here a little bit at the end.”

Late in the third, the Coyotes tied it when winger Anthony Duclair ripped a behind-the-back pass from Domi past Niemi at 15:33 for his second goal in as many games after not scoring since Dec. 29.

“He’s gotta have something positive come out of the year,” Tippett said. “One of the things he needs to bring to our team is some scoring, so it’s good to see him get on the board a couple times. Hopefully he can continue that here, finish out the year strong.”

Of Duclair’s 25 career goals with the Coyotes, Domi has assisted on 13.

“Sometimes the puck doesn’t go in for him,” Domi said. “It’s nice to see him get rewarded now, and hopefully we can take that confidence and go into next year with the same mentality.”

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Duclair said he didn’t call for the pass as sometimes he and Domi know where each other’s going to be on the ice.

“He’s got great hockey sense, so it’s pretty easy for him to find me out there,” Duclair said. “Hopefully we can keep that going.”

Center Alexander Burmistrov also tallied a helper, and the three have combined for nine points in the last three games.

“Playing with some good linemates,” Duclair said. “We’re creating some chances, and the puck’s going in right now so it’s nice.”

In overtime, the Coyotes tested Niemi three times and had control of the play before the Stars transitioned the other way and had their pressure culminate in the game-winner by defenseman Julius Honka, whose wind-up at 3:45 of overtime went glove-side on Smith for his first career goal.

“We had some offensive time, and then it came back and couldn’t get a handle on it,” Tippett said. “That’s the way that 3-on-3 goes.”

Just before the Coyotes tied it at 2, Smith made a critical pad save on Ritchie to keep Arizona’s deficit at 1. Smith, who tied Bob Essensa for the most games played by a goalie in franchise history at 311, finished with 28 saves.

“It was nice that we came back and had a chance to win in overtime,” DeAngelo said. “But I don’t know. Different story if I don’t make those plays.”

Report

Key player

Stars defenseman Julius Honka scored his first career goal in overtime.

Key moment

Honka broke a 2-2 tie 3:45 into overtime with a blistering glove-side shot.

Key number

2 turnovers by defenseman Anthony DeAngelo that led to Dallas goals.

View from the press box

Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo had a rough start with two first-period turnovers that ended up in the back of the Coyotes’ net. The first was a poor outlet in front that was intercepted, while the second was a pass that he failed to connect on as he, again, tried to move the puck up ice. The team expects mistakes from young players, but what coach Dave Tippett was interested to see was how DeAngelo rebounded from those errors. “He’s a real competitive kid,” Tippett said. “He competed hard, but some of those mistakes he has to learn from.”