{coyotes} Ekman-Larsson strikes in OT, Coyotes top Panthers

Saturday, 25 October 2014

{coyotes} Ekman-Larsson strikes in OT, Coyotes top Panthers

1989 - Taylor Swift / Nick & Knight / My Everything - Ariana Grande

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson has scored two goals this season. He's made them count, with each coming in overtime.

Ekman-Larsson's latest overtime goal lifted the Arizona Coyotes to a 2-1 win against the Florida Panthers on Saturday at Gila River Arena.

The Panthers gave the Coyotes eight power plays in the game, and the Coyotes capitalized on two of the final three. The last one came when Florida forward Aleksander Barkov hit Shane Doan in the face with his stick 1:25 into overtime, and it cost the Panthers.

Keith Yandle and Sam Gagner set up Ekman-Larsson, who beat Florida goalie Roberto Luongo with a perfectly placed shot to the far top corner for the win.

Ekman-Larsson scored in overtime Oct. 11 against the Los Angeles Kings to give Arizona a 3-2 victory.

Goalie Mike Smith made 23 saves and snapped a three-game losing streak with the win. Luongo made 39 saves for the Coyotes, but the shorthanded situations finally caught up to the Panthers, who went 2-0-2 on their four-game road trip but missed a chance to get seven points on a four-game road trip for the first time in franchise history.

After two scoreless periods, Florida center Brandon Pirri scored 1:47 into the third period for a 1-0 lead.

Rookie Justin Hodgman answered for Arizona with a goal in his first NHL game at 9:51 on the sixth of the Coyotes' eight power-play chances.

Florida got on the board following a turnover by Yandle behind the Coyotes net. Jussi Jokinen took the puck away and chipped it to Tomas Fleischmann, who found Pirri streaking down the slot. Pirri went from forehand to backhand and beat Smith for his second goal.

But back-to-back tripping penalties against Sean Bergenheim gave Arizona more time on the power play. It was after the second one that Hodgman, a 26-year-old who played the past three seasons in Russia, made his NHL debut a memorable one.

Lauri Korpikoski deflected a Yandle shot from the point. Luongo stopped the puck, but the rebound went back to Korpikoski, who pushed the puck to an unmarked Hodgman to fire it into a nearly open net at 9:51.

Hodgman had five points in five preseason games for Arizona to lead the team, but he was sent down to the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League after sitting as a healthy scratch the first two games. He was recalled with Martin Hanzal and David Moss out with injuries.

The goal snapped a scoreless drought of 127:09 for the Coyotes, who were shut out by the Minnesota Wild on Thursday and hadn't scored since Martin Erat's goal at 7:42 of the third period of a 4-3 shootout loss against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 21.

The Panthers and Coyotes had combined for seven first-period goals in 12 total games entering Saturday. They had 23 total shots in the first period, but neither team scored.

The Panthers had their best chance when Scottie Upshall set up Nick Bjugstad for a wide-open shot in the slot. Bjugstad hit the crossbar so hard he rocked the net backward but the puck bounced away. Arizona's Antoine Vermette beat Luongo with a shot in tight a few minutes later, but Pirri swept the puck away before it reached the goal line.

The Coyotes appeared to take a 1-0 lead 2:10 into the first period when B.J. Crombeen batted a Brandon McMillan rebound into the net. But video review found Crombeen's stick was over the crossbar, and the goal was waved off.

Luongo made one of his best saves of the night minutes later, robbing Ekman-Larsson in the slot with the handle of his stick on a power-play chance.

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