RALEIGH, NC — Karel Vejmelka made 36 saves, and the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 at PNC Arena on Wednesday.
Vejmelka’s shutout was his second this season and third in the NHL.
“It feels better and better every game, especially if they’re shutouts,” Vejmelka said. “It’s always better to get more shots. I just focused on every shot. We did a really good job on the rebounds. We played really good defensively.”
Lawson Crouse scored twice, and Dylan Guenther and Shayne Gostisbehere each had two assists for the Coyotes (7-9-2), who had lost four in a row and are 4-3-1 on a 14-game road stretch.
“We played with a desperation,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “We took pride in our defense, and that paid off I think. Not saying that was an easy shutout, I don’t mean that at all. [Vejmelka] was unbelievable. He had a team in front of him with an urgency to defend. That was cool to see.”
Video: ARI@CAR: Vejmelka stops all 36 shots in a 4-0 win
Pyotr Kochetkovwho got the start after coach Rod Brind’Amour said Antti Raanta “tweaked” something, made 23 saves for the Hurricanes (10-6-4), who have lost four straight (0-1-3).
“At some point we’ve got to have some emotion and get going and really start pushing each other,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “Something’s got to change. We kind of felt like the puck wasn’t going in, and we kind of just slowly faded away.”
Nick Schmaltz gave Arizona a 1-0 lead on its only shot of the first period, scoring off the rush with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle at 1:06.
The Hurricanes finished the period with a 14-1 advantage in shots and also had eight attempts to miss the net.
“We gave up one shot through [20] minutes. That’s pretty good, but (we) don’t score,” Brind’Amour said. “You have to come away with something when you do that because they’re going to come back and play. We’ve got to find a way to cash in when we have the empty nets. It’s too hard to score in this league.”
Video: ARI@CAR: Schmaltz goes post and in from the circle
Jordan Martinook had a chance to tie it at 10:35 of the second period, but Vejmelka made a left-pad save before also stopping the forward’s rebound attempt.
Kochetkov then made a highlight-reel save to keep it a one-goal game at 18:54, reaching back with his stick along the goal line to deny a one-timer from Travis Boyd off a cross-crease pass from Gostisbehere.
However, Crouse extended the lead to 2-0 at 1:52 of the third period JJ Moser‘s point shot hit Guenther in front and caromed to Crouse for a backhand.
Nick Bjugstad scored on a rebound in front at 9:14 to make it 3-0, and Crouse shot into an empty net at 17:53 for the 4-0 final.
“We started playing more to our identity in the second period,” Crouse said. “They’re always sending it around, getting it to the [defense], quick shots. We talked about what we had to clean up and went out there and did our best. Obviously, in the third, it paid off for us.”
NOTES: Tourigny coached his 100th NHL game (32-59-9). … Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who made his season debut in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators on Monday, had the secondary assist on Crouse’s empty-net goal. … Schmaltz’s goal was his first this season. He returned Monday after missing 15 games with an upper-body injury. … Carolina was 0-for-4 on the power play and is 0-for-20 in its past six games. … Kochetkov, who lost in regulation for the first time in eight NHL games (seven starts), signed a four-year, $8 million contract earlier Wednesday. It has an average annual value of $2 million.
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