GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - The Arizona Coyotes withstood San Jose’s flurry in the first period and another in the closing minutes.
In between, they played what may be their best period of hockey all season- against a finalist from last year’s Stanley Cup Final, no less.
Louis Domingue stopped 39 shots, Brad Richardson scored in his 600th career game and the Coyotes picked up what should be a confidence-boosting win with a 3-2 victory over the Sharks on Tuesday night.
“We weathered the storm,” said Coyotes left wing Jamie McGinn, who had his second goal of the season to cap Arizona’s second-period flurry. “That’s the best way to put it: Weathering the storm and then we took it to them.”
The Sharks jumped on the struggling Coyotes early on Patrick Marleau’s first-period goal, but Arizona responded with three goals in the second period to win for the second time in eight games.
Lawson Crouse scored his first NHL goal in his sixth game, and the Coyotes had nine different players with a point.
Domingue made some spectacular saves and was solid in the crease in the closing minutes after the Sharks added an extra attacker for his second win in six starts since Mike Smith went out with a lower body injury.
“I’ve been feeling good for almost all year, so it was just a matter of staying focused for a full 60 minutes,” Domingue said.
He needed to be after San Jose pulled goalie Martin Jones with 3:03 left.
Mikkel Boedker scored with 11.9 seconds left in his return to Arizona, but Domingue turned away everything else before and after to preserve the victory.
Jones had 27 saves after stopping 70 of 73 shots during San Jose’s three-game winning streak heading into Tuesday.
“We did some good stuff in the first period, I loved our start,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “But that’s the thing we need to work most at: When we’re on top of teams, instead of getting an extra goal and put them away, we let them hang around.”
The Coyotes have struggled since a season-opening victory against Philadelphia, losing five games on a six-game road trip and 3-2 to Colorado on Saturday in their return home.
Arizona’s biggest problem is losing close games; its last four were lost by a goal.
The Coyotes kept it from getting to that point by swarming the Sharks in the second period.
Marleau scored by keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and wristing it past Domingue.
It was all Coyotes after that.
Richardson answered early in the second period, grabbing a loose puck in the corner and taking it without much resistance to the crease, where he beat Jones for his fourth of the season. Crouse scored 68 seconds later, deflecting a point shot by Kevin Connauton past Jones.
McGinn made it 3-1 by whipping a shot from above the left circle to the top corner of the goal through a screen by teammate Anthony Duclair.
“There was definitely some lapses and they took advantage of it,” Marleau said.
Domingue preserved the two-goal lead with 5 seconds left in the period, doing the splits to make a snatching glove save on Brenden Dillon’s shot from the slot.
Notes: Arizona’s Ryan White and San Jose’s Michael Haley squared off just 2:32 into the game, both earning five-minute fighting penalties. … Coyotes D Michael Stone missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. C Martin Hanzal left in the first period with a lower body injury and did not return. … The Coyotes honored Boedker with a tribute video in his first game back since being traded to Colorado last season.
UP NEXT
Sharks: Host Calgary on Thursday before the Pittsburgh Penguins arrive in the Bay Area for a rematch of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Coyotes: Host Nashville on Thursday before a two-game trip to Anaheim and Colorado.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.