Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley led the Arizona Coyotes to a 5-3 victory in the team's first preseason game against the Los Angeles Kings in Australia.
It was the Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller show through the Arizona Coyotes 5-3 preseason win against the Los Angeles Kings in Melbourne Australia on Friday night.
Going into this season, all the hype surrounded Keller and Colley and they surely did not disappoint in the team’s first preseason game.
It all started early in the second period when Keller went behind the net and found an impossible angle to sneak the puck past Kings goalie Pheonix Copley. He became the first NHL player to score a goal in the Southern Hemisphere.
“It was definitely cool,” Keller said. “I never thought I was going to score a goal in Australia so it's great the NHL decided to come over here, help grow the game and play in front of new people.”
Keller may have started the show but it was Cooley who ultimately finished it. Cooley committed a costly turnover that led to a Kings goal in the second period but he would bounce back in a huge way.
The 19-year-old used his blazing speed to get into the offensive zone and hit a spin-o-rama move that only superstars are able to do. The end result had the puck in the net 11:40 minutes into the second period extending the Coyotes lead to 4-1 as Cooley scored his first goal in epic fashion.
“After that pizza I threw up the middle, I thought I had to do something,” Cooley said. “It was just a hockey play, I thought I had some space, and I thought I missed the net, actually, but I saw the guys put their arms up. It definitely felt good to get that one, and it was an awesome game to play in.”
Cooley had a huge smile on his face upon scoring his first goal. Can you blame him, it's something he has dreamed of since he was a little boy.
“I think just everyone's dream as hockey players is playing in the NHL and obviously playing Australia too, it's pretty special and obviously to get one too was pretty cool,” Cooley said. “So it was a super fun game. It was a great atmosphere too play in and yeah, it was fun.”
Cooley’s goal not only put himself in shock but also his teammates who were in awe of what the rookie put on display.
“That was one of the best moves I've ever seen,” Keller said. “The spin-o-rama was one thing, but then to have the patience to pull it to your forehand and then finish it, it's definitely the best I've ever seen.”
The Coyotes lit up the stat sheet with five goals. Matias Maccelli, Lawson Crouse and Barrett Hayton all scored goals for Arizona while goalie Connor Ingram played the whole game and made 33 saves.
It's just one preseason game, but the new-look Coyotes looked like a completely different team last night, a potential sign of things to come during the regular season.