Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley worked their magic in overtime, propelling the Coyotes to a 2-1 victory over the Kraken.
The Arizona Coyotes didn’t score a goal for over 58 minutes against the Seattle Kraken, but still found a way to win a 2-1 overtime thriller on Friday night.
It was one of the strangest games the Coyotes have played all season and not all for the right reasons.
For two full periods, the contest was scoreless as both Arizona and Seattle were not able to sustain much offensive pressure.
Ryker Evans scored his first career NHL goal 7:40 into the third period, giving the Kraken a 1-0 lead.
Even when trailing, the Coyotes still struggled to create any sort of offensive spark and all seemed hopeless for the home team.
That was until Clayton Keller scored a goal with just over a minute to go which completely changed the course of what was a pretty miserable game for the Coyotes up to that point.
In overtime, Logan Cooley delivered a perfect pass to Dylan Guenther who sniped the puck in the net just as he always seems to do.
Guenther has 11 goals in his 33 games this season and he is really making an impact for this Coyotes team.
“He brings a lot to the game,” coach André Tourigny said. “He brings a competitiveness, pace, execution, really good defensively, really good stick, he is playing well on the PK, he is competitive. Even if he is 20-years-old, he has been in a lot of championship games and it shows. He wants to win, he has that fire in his eyes. We are really happy to have him.”
Despite this game really not going their way for the majority of the night, the Coyotes didn’t quit and showed resilience, something that Tourigny knows this team possesses.
“For me there has never been a doubt of our level of care, our level of passion,” Tourigny said. “It was not an easy game, we had to grind and we did. I never doubted the fight in our guys…”
The Coyotes may be essentially eliminated from playoff contention, but players and coaches are still showing up to work everyday and remain motivated to win.
“You are always playing for something,” Guenther said. “No matter who you are playing for, people would kill to play the last 15 games in the NHL, so don’t take it for granted I think. Everybody in here is playing for something no matter who they are, so I think that’s important…”
The Coyotes are back in action on Sunday to take on the Dallas Stars at Mullett Arena.