OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Led by the line of Derek Stepan, Vinnie Hinostroza and Richard Panik, the Arizona Coyotes added another victory to their recent surge.
Hinostroza scored twice and had an assist to propel Arizona past the Ottawa Senators 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Stepan also scored for the Coyotes, who are 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 shots.
“They came out flying in the first 10 minutes and (Kuemper) kept us in the game,” Hinostroza said. “We stuck to what’s worked for us and it led to some goals and some good defense. We’ve been playing really good hockey right now and we like where this is going and we just want to keep it going.”
Bobby Ryan and Ryan Dzingel had the goals for the Senators. Craig Anderson, making his second start after missing 12 games with a concussion, finished with 30 saves.
Nobody will want to forget this game more than Ottawa rookie Brady Tkachuk. He struggled throughout and had a turnover that resulted in a Coyotes goal.
“No one’s going to take it harder than him, I’m sure,” Ryan said. “As teammates we need to say, ’We need you down the stretch. We need you to be the player that you’re going to be. You’re going to have growing pains. Everyone is going to turn pucks over, it’s just the way it goes.’
“For him, he’s so competitive and so hard on himself that you want to lighten that load on him a little bit as older guys and just tell him, ’We’re not blaming that game on you by any means or that goal.’ It’s all part of the game, but Brady’s going to be a hell of a player and we’re going to stick by him.”
The Coyotes led 3-1 to start the third period, but Ottawa made it a one-goal game when Dzingel scored his 20th at the seven-minute mark.
Mark Stone had a great chance for the equalizer, but was unable to get a decent shot off in time.
Trailing 1-0, the Senators tied the game in the opening minutes of the second. Dzingel made a great pass to Ryan, who made no mistake in beating Kuemper high glove side.
Arizona wasted no time regaining the lead, scoring twice in a span of three minutes.
“We had a tough second period,” Anderson said. “It was one of those things where we played pretty good in the first, and the second period it was back and forth and they had momentum for a little bit and got momentum and got a couple goals.”
Hinostroza got his second of the game when he took a bounce off the end boards and squeezed the puck behind Anderson.
Stepan made it 3-1 when he completed a nice give-and-go with Panik.
“The Stepan line was excellent,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “They had a lot of possession time, they changed momentum when they were on the ice, so they did a great job for us.”
The Coyotes opened the scoring midway through the period as they took advantage of Tkachuk’s turnover. Panik intercepted Tkachuk’s pass and sent the puck to Hinostroza, who was all alone at the side of the net.
Earlier in the period Tkachuk fell at the blue line, allowing Josh Archibald to break in alone on Anderson.
The win did prove costly for the Coyotes as captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson left the game with a lower-body injury and will be re-evaluated Wednesday. Niklas Hjalmarsson exited early in the third after taking a puck to the face, but he returned.
NOTES: The Senators were without Ben Harpur and Colin White, while Rudolfs Balcers was a healthy scratch. … Ilya Lyubushkin and Laurent Dauphin were healthy scratches for the Coyotes.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: Back in action Wednesday at Montreal.
Senators: Off until Feb. 1 when they take on Pittsburgh.
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