*Photo from Yahoo News*
A lot of disappointment in the desert. Jordan Martinook scored, Martin Necas had two assists, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Arizona Coyotes with a 5-1 victory on Friday night in Tempe.
The Hurricanes now have wins in 6 of their last 8 games and 7 of their last 10, sitting at 31-17-5 and in second place in the Metropolitan Division. With two goals in the first 5 minutes, the Hurricanes were able to hand Arizona their 8th straight loss as they drop to 7th in the Central Division.
Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour said that "We started really well, which was great to see, and our goalie played really well, too, I mean ‘Kooch’ made some real good saves. We got ahead early and we kind of sat back, that happens, but the start was really good and made the difference."
Martinook gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead just 16 seconds into the game, scoring his 9th goal of the season. At the 4:50 mark of the first period, Jalen Chatfield made it 2-0 on his 5th goal of the season, assisted by Necas and Jack Drury. Dylan Guenther got the Coyotes on the board and made it 2-1 with an unassisted goal.
Seth Jarvis got the two goal lead back for the Hurricanes when he scored unassisted 6:28 into the second period. Drury and Stefan Noesen got assists on Teuvo Teravainen's power play goal later in the period that made it a 4-1 game. Michael Bunting scored the lone goal of the 3rd period, making it 5-1 with Necas getting the only assist.
Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce said after the game that "We started out really well and stuck to our game plan, but then we kind of started to turn the puck over in the neutral zone. In the middle of the second period, we started doing a good job of simplifying our game."
Getting the start in goal for the Hurricanes was Pyotr Kochetkov, who was able to grab a win and improve to 14-9-3 through 26 starts. Kochetkov stopped all but one of the 31 shots he faced, giving him a dazzling .968 save percentage.
It was Karel Vejmelka who started and took the loss for the Coyotes, with his record now 6-13-2 in 20 starts. Vejmelka made 21 saves on 26 shots before being pulled from the game. Matt Villalta came on in the 3rd period and stopped all 4 shots he faced in his NHL debut.
Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny said of the team's 8th straight loss that "The way we started was unfortunate, not because we didn’t play well, but we need to be more detailed. And that’s on me. It’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen."
The Hurricanes play the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night in the second half of a back to back, with Spencer Knight slated to get the start. The Coyotes travel to take on the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, with Vejmelka projected to start.
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