GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Christian Fischer broke out of scoring slump for the resurgent Arizona Coyotes.
Fischer scored on a rebound 2:43 into overtime to give the Arizona Coyotes a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.
“I’ve been down on myself the last three of four games because I’m not scoring,” Fischer said. “I’ve had all the chances in the world but couldn’t put them home.”
That changed in a flash midway through the overtime period. Christian Dvorak took the initial shot, which goalie Darcy Kuemper seemed to stop with his right pad. But the puck trickled behind him and Fischer, who was trailing the play pounced on it and scored into the vacated net from 3 feet away.
“That’s what you’re looking for, not guys playing outstanding but a lot of good games,” said Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet, whose team has won three of four after a 2-15-3 start. “There were no passengers tonight. It was a team game.”
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brendan Perlini also scored for the Coyotes, who won at home for the first second time in 10 games (2-7-1).
Anze Kopitar and Trevor Lewis scored the Kings, who have lost three straight and seven of eight.
Alex Goligoski had a chance to end the game for Arizona one minute into overtime when he took a long outlet pass from Max Domi, but Kuemper stopped his point-blank shot.
“Tonight was a game where you’re thinking here we go again,” Tocchet said. “But I didn’t feel that at all on the bench.”
Ekman-Larsson gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, scoring a power-play goal on a long, sweeping shot through traffic from the top of the left circle.
The Kings tied it at 1 nearly three minutes into the second, when Kopitar pushed a pass from Martin Gaborik in the right circle past Wedgewood from just inside the left hash marks. Kopitar’s goal was his 10th of the season and first in four games.
“We try to put an emphasis on having a high guy there, have a good cycle and having everyone on the same page and I think we did that quite a bit tonight,” Gaborik said. “We couldn’t got a lot of opportunity tonight, in those areas were pretty good.”
Perlini made it 2-1 at with 2:10 left in the period, taking Goligoski’s shot from the point and redirecting it from the low slot for his third goal in as many games.
Lewis pulled the Kings even at 2-2 with 17:08 remaining. Scott Wedgewood made an initial skate save on a short shot but couldn’t control the puck. Andy Andreoff chipped repeatedly at the loose puck, which finally slid untended in the crease behind Wedgewood’s right pad before Lewis shoved it the final few inches.
“They got it back in the third period and gave us a chance,” Kings coach John Stevens said. “We obviously got a point there but we would like to get two out of the situation.”
NOTES: Lewis has three goals in his past four games. … Ekman-Larsson has five points in his past four games and 10 in his last 11 against Los Angeles. … Coyotes C Derek Steppan notched an assist on Ekman-Larsson’s goal to extend his point streak to five games. … Gaborik was making his season debut after missing Los Angeles’ first 22 games with a knee injury. … The Coyotes were without starting goaltender Antti Raanta, who left Tuesday’s game with an upper-body injury after colliding with a San Jose player in the crease. Raanta likely will also miss Saturday’s home game against Las Vegas. Arizona called up G Marek Langhamer from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Thursday.
UP NEXT:
Kings: Host Anaheim on Saturday night.
Arizona: Host Vegas on Saturday night.
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