GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Already down a goalie, the New Jersey Devils watched MacKenzie Blackwood leave in the first period with a lower-body injury.
Keith Kinkaid filled in nicely for someone who hadn’t played in four games.
Kinkaid stopped 21 shots and had two saves in a shootout, lifting the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Friday night.
“It was nice to see Keith come in and he was strong for us,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “He got better and better as the game went on.”
Kinkaid started the season as New Jersey’s No. 1 goalie, but the Devils have been riding Blackwood’s recent success with Cory Schneider out.
Blackwood, making his seventh start in nine games seemed to tweak his leg midway through the first period and was replaced by Kinkaid late. Kinkaid gave up goals to Conor Garland and Christian Fischer in regulation, but stopped Alex Galchenyuk and Nick Cousins in the shootout.
Kyle Palmeiri and Drew Stafford scored in the shootout for the Devils, who have won four of six.
In regulation, New Jersey’s Nico Hischier scored his 11th goal on a shot that didn’t go into the net and Blake Coleman had his 12th of the season.
“It was a good effort,” Stafford said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we found a way.”
Arizona’s Darcy Kuemper made a pair of spectacular saves in overtime, swiping a puck out of the crease after it trickled through on one, snatching another shot from a seated position on another. He allowed goals on the two shots he faced in the shootout and finished with 33 saves.
The injury-depleted Coyotes went 0 for 5 on the power play, including a lengthy 5 on 3, and have lost 11 of 15.
“Five, six regulars out, I hate to keep saying it,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “We worked hard, but you could tell the skill level wasn’t there sometimes. We’re just grinding away.”
The Devils scored a goal 1:05 into the game that never actually went into the net.
New Jersey had a 2-on-1 after an Arizona neutral-zone turnover and Kyle Palmieri fed the puck to Hischier. Kuemper got a piece of Hischier’s shot and the puck shot in the air just as Arizona forward Clayton Keller crashed into the goal, dislodging it. Initially called no goal, the officials awarded it to Hischier upon review, ruling the puck would have gone in had Keller not knocked the goal off its moorings.
“The puck was in the air, so I don’t think you can assume it wasn’t going to hit the top of the net,” Tocchet said. “It went to Toronto. I don’t know.”
Garland tied it late in the first period, intercepting a pass by New Jersey’s Pavel Zacha in front of the crease and slipping the puck under Kinkaid’s left pad.
Fischer put the Coyotes up midway through the second period, beating Kinkaid stick side with a wrister from the left circle.
Coleman tied it late in the period, one-timing in a pass from Travis Zajac that hit Kuemper’s left pad and trickled through his legs.
Kuemper made a spectacular save in the third period to prevent a short-handed goal, doing to splits to get a skate on Hischier’s breakaway attempt.
It wasn’t enough. Arizona missed on some chances in the third period and overtime, and couldn’t get anything past Kinkaid in the shootout.
“We were on the game, but I don’t think we do enough to win that game,” Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson said.
NOTES: Arizona C Nick Schmaltz missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve on Thursday and is listed as week-to-week by the team. … Schneider missed his ninth straight game with a lower-body injury, but has been skating on his own. LW Taylor Hall missed his fifth straight with a lower-body injury.
UP NEXT
The Devils: At Vegas on Sunday.
The Coyotes: Host the New York Rangers on Sunday.
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