Conor Garland scored the game-winning goal late in the third period against his former team, en route to a Vancouver Canucks’ 2-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night. Coach Presser The Coyotes were coming off of a crazy 8-5 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday and had a few days off before this game. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that rust played a major factor as the Coyotes sustained very little offensive pressure and trailed 1-0 after 40 minutes of play. The one positive aspect the Coyotes brought to their game on Wednesday was their physicality, which was led by Jack McBain. It all started with McBain’s enormous hit on Elias Pettersson in the second period. “I think McBain did a really good job,” coach André Tourigny said. “That was a really good hit, I really liked the way he played, but it’s a heavy team on the other side…” Dylan Guenther scored in the third period to tie the game at 1-1, but Garland’s goal with 1:51 remaining sealed the deal for Vancouver. “I don’t think we played good enough tonight,” Guenther said. “Just not fast enough, they were good defensively. I don’t think we were able to break that.” While the Coyotes played a really solid third period, they were not able to show that same intensity level through most of the night, ultimately leading to their demise. Defensively the Coyotes were solid, but offensively the team just didn’t do enough to win. Arizona will be back in action on Friday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.
