The Coyotes and Sharks took to the ice again Saturday afternoon in a rematch of Thursday night’s game. Identical to Thursday night, it was the Sharks jumping out to the early lead. This time it was Ryan Donato scoring on the power play to make it 1-0 Sharks. But Phil Kessel would tie it for Arizona shortly after on a power play of their own. Barrett Hayton would score to make it 2-1 Coyotes, but moments later Timo Meier tied it for the Sharks. Meier’s goal was his second point of the game after collecting an assist on Donato’s goal. After a lot of back and forth, San Jose and Arizona headed to first intermission all tied up at two.
Arizona closed out the first period winning 84% of face-offs, leading 9-8 lead in shots and 5-2 in blocked shots. Midway through the second, Phil Kessel netted his second of the game making it 3-2 Coyotes. Captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson picked up his second assist of the game on the goal after picking up his first on Kessel’s first period goal. Shortly after that at the 8:56 mark in the period, Jakob Chychrun extended Arizona’s lead to 4-2. The second period ended with Arizona leading San Jose 4-2. Arizona continued their dominance in face-offs winning 72% of them through two periods by a count of 23-9. Arizona also continued their lead in blocked shots by a total of 13-6. However, the Sharks went into second intermission leading in shots 24-19.
Third Period and Other Notes
Roughly two and a half minutes into the third, Clayton Keller netted it making it 5-2 Coyotes. Ekman-Larsson collected his third point of the game with his third assist. Brassard picked up his second point of the game after picking up an earlier assist on Chychrun’s second period goal. With goalie, Martin Jones pulled and a late power play, Tomas Hertl netted it for San Jose to make it 5-3. The game ended with San Jose leading the shot category 34-26, but Arizona emerged victorious 5-3. The Coyotes ended the game with a 15-10 lead in blocked shots and 60% from the face-off circle.
This was the third game in his career that Kessel scored in consecutive games to start a season. He previously did it in 2008-09 with the Boston Bruins and then again in 2010-11 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s worth noting that in both of those seasons he finished with 30 goals.
Following today’s game, the Coyotes will make a short jaunt westward to Nevada to face the Vegas Golden Knights Monday night and Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena. Monday night’s game will be broadcast on national television on NBC Sports Network at 7pm pst/8pm mst. Both teams will then make the trip to Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona for games Friday night and Sunday night.
