Nick Bjugstad scored the only goal in a shootout, leading the Arizona Coyotes to a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, ending a four-game losing streak to Seattle.
Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, and Clayton Keller scored for the Coyotes, who converted twice on the power play. Arizona has won four of their six home games at the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena this season.
Bjugstad has been the deciding factor in Arizona’s shootout wins this season.
“Sometimes you score, and you just get confidence from it,” said Bjugstad, who has 17 shootout goals in his 13-year career. “I didn’t really expect coming into the league to be shooting. I had a lot of reps when I was a young player in Florida. That helps with the nerves.”
Eeli Tolvanen, Jared McCann, and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken, who have lost four of six overall. They have played five overtime games already this season, winning twice.
“It’s a tight league,” defenseman Justin Schultz said. “Every game is a battle. We are doing many good things, especially in overtime, this year. It’s just not going in right now for us. It (stinks) not getting the two points, but we learn from it.”
Tolvanen scored in his second straight game, and McCann has scored in four of the last five.
Hayton scored his first goal of the season, and Maccelli extended his career-best point streak to nine games with his second goal during the run.
“I’m a competitor,” Hayton said. “I want to score. I want to produce, without a doubt. At the same time, you have to trust the process. Wanting to get off to a good start as a team, that personal stuff comes second. You want to focus on playing a complete game and impacting games.”
Coyotes goalie Connor Ingram, who made 35 saves, stopped Matty Beniers on a breakaway with 1:06 remaining in regulation. Beniers, who won the Calder Trophy with 24 goals as a rookie last year, has not scored in 13 games this season.
Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord, who had 25 saves, played at Arizona State when the school used a recreational rink 2 miles from campus before Mullett opened last season.
“We talk about even when you don’t have your A game, you need to find a way to crawl in,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “You need to dig deep and find a way to win. I won’t pretend we played an excellent game, but we battled extremely hard, and willingness to fight made the difference.”
The Kraken scored on their first shot on goal 40 seconds into the game after Tolvanen poked the puck loose along the center boards, and Jamie Oleksiak started a 2-on-0 break. Tolvanen and Yanni Gourde exchanged passes before Tolvanen beat a defenseless Ingram.
Maccelli tied it with a wrist shot off the left post at 6:07 of the first period.
Keller cleared the puck off the goal line after McCann’s shot midway through the second to keep the score even.
Hayton gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead four minutes into the second period when he tipped in Keller’s shot from the right circle for Arizona’s 12th power-play goal of the season. Schultz answered less than a minute later with a wrist shot through traffic to make it 2-2.
Schwartz and Keller scored on power plays a minute apart early in the third. Schwartz hit a post but flipped in his rebound at 1:16 before Keller scored from the right circle 42 seconds later to make it 3-3.
UP NEXT
- Kraken: At Colorado on Thursday.
- Coyotes: At St. Louis on Thursday.
