Scott Wedgewood has been in this position before.
The last time Arizona started a season with 11 consecutive losses—four years ago—Wedgewood was the goaltender who secured the Coyotes’ first win. History repeated itself on Saturday night when Wedgewood, who rejoined the team on Friday after being claimed off waivers from New Jersey, came off the bench to lead Arizona to a comeback 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken.
Wedgewood entered the game 59 seconds into the first period after the Kraken scored on their first two shots.
“Happy to be back. I enjoyed my first time here,” said Wedgewood, who hadn’t even practiced with the team since rejoining them in Anaheim. “Legs are shaking a bit—new team, you know what’s at stake, and you’re down early. You just want to keep them in it. In the second period, we really started to find our game.”
“He was unbelievable,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “He made the difference.”
Wedgewood made 27 saves, and Lawson Crouse scored twice, including the game-winner with 1:05 left in regulation. The Coyotes (1-10-1) avoided breaking the franchise record for most losses to start a season, set in 2017-18. The only NHL team with a worse start was the 1943-44 New York Rangers, who didn’t win their first game until their 16th.
“It was an emotional three weeks,” Crouse said. “But at the same time, we gotta continue to build off it. But I’m not going to lie, it feels really good.”
Kraken coach Dave Hakstol called the loss “disappointing.”
“Overall, in some critical areas, our focus was not there,” he said. “You look at the third goal, a pass-out play from underneath our goal line. Our awareness was not there. The communication wasn’t there.”
As for the early lead causing a loss of focus, he added: “That shouldn’t be part of it at all. We were able to build a 3-1 lead. We didn’t make them work hard enough.”
Tourigny earned his first win as an NHL coach.
“My first thought was for the players,” Tourigny said. “It gets heavy mentally. It hurts as a coach when they don’t get a reward. It was great to get that today. Guys stayed with it—we’re down 3-1 in the first. It wasn’t a walk in the park, so the players believed in the process, in themselves, trusting each other, and that was huge.”
The lead changes came quickly in the final minutes of the third period. Phil Kessel’s power-play goal with six minutes remaining gave the Coyotes the lead, but Seattle’s Mark Giordano tied the game just 13 seconds before Crouse’s game-winner.
Shayne Gostisbehere assisted on three of Arizona’s goals. Antoine Roussel and Travis Boyd also scored for the Coyotes, while Johan Larsson contributed two assists.
Jordan Eberle scored 15 seconds into the game for the Kraken, and Yanni Gourde added another at 59 seconds. Nathan Bastian also scored his first of the season. Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves.
QUICK START
Roussel’s first goal of the season at 1:33 in the first period marked just the sixth time in NHL history that the first three goals were scored within the first 93 seconds of the game. The last time this happened was in a game between Montreal and Florida on Dec. 28, 2007.
PICKING IT UP
Eberle’s goal was his fourth in two games, following his hat trick in the Kraken’s 5-2 win over Buffalo on Thursday.
WHAT’S NEXT
- Seattle: At Vegas on Tuesday night.
- Arizona: Hosts Minnesota on Wednesday night.
