The Coyotes followed up their first six-goal game of the season by scoring another six goals against one of the Western Conference's elite teams. Max Domi had two goals and an assist, and Anthony Duclair had three assists to help the Coyotes to a 6-3 win against the Dallas Stars at Gila River Arena.
Martin Hanzal had a goal and two assists to give the Domi-Hanzal-Duclair line nine points against Dallas' top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Patrick Sharp. The Coyotes, who defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 on Monday, scored 12 or more goals in back-to-back games for the first time more than a decade. On Dec. 3, 2005, they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 8-4 and followed it up with a 5-2 win against the Atlanta Thrashers two days later.
Duclair has five points in the past two games and Hanzal has four goals in his past five games. This time, Domi got in on the action. Michael Stone, Tyler Gaudet and Antoine Vermette also scored for Phoenix, which had a season-high 42 shots and has won three of its past four games. For the Coyotes, fighting firepower with firepower was the answer against Dallas. Goalie Louis Domingue made 36 saves, including a pair of sparkling glove saves on Seguin in the third period.
Seguin did score his 31st goal and Benn got his 30th for the Stars, who have allowed at least six goals in a game seven times this season. Ales Hemsky also scored for Dallas, which swept the Coyotes in three games last season and outscored them 13-4. Antti Niemi made 36 saves. The Stars remained one point behind the first-place Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division. They have two games in hand. Dallas did control the play early and turned an Arizona mistake into the game's first goal. Benn won a race for the puck with a pinching Oliver Ekman-Larsson and chipped it ahead to send Sharp and Seguin on a 2-on-1 break. Sharp fed Seguin, who calmly put a wrist shot over Domingue's stick and under the crossbar at 9:38.
Seguin has three goals in the past four games and is third in the NHL behind Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (37 goals) and Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks (34). The Coyotes regrouped and had 13 of their 18 shots during the final eight minutes of the period. But Niemi stopped them all, denying Duclair right on the goal line and stopping Jordan Martinook and Mikkel Boedker in succession. However, the Coyotes kept coming in the second period, and the chances turned into goals. Duclair found Domi racing up the ice with an in-stride pass across the red line. Domi got past Jason Demers, carried the puck across the crease and dumped a backhander up and over Niemi at 3:33 to tie the game.
After the teams were called for four penalties in a four-minute span, the Stars took advantage of the last one to regain the lead. With Kyle Chipchura off for hooking, Jason Spezza found Benn with a cross-crease pass from behind the goal line and Benn found room between Domingue and the near post for his 30th goal at 13:02. But the Coyotes kept coming. It took 51 seconds for Domi and Duclair to set up Stone for a shot from the point that deflected off the stick blade of Colton Sceviour and skipped past a screened Niemi. Stone's fourth goal of the season was his first since Dec. 27.
Phoenix went ahead at 18:26. Domi sent Duclair down the ice with speed, and after Niemi stopped Duclair with his pad, Domi fought off John Klingberg and stuffed in the rebound to give Phoenix their first lead at 3-2. The goals kept coming in the third period. Hanzal put an Ekman-Larsson rebound between Niemi's pads at 7:20 for a power-play goal to give Arizona its first two-goal lead. But the Stars answered 1:13 later when Hemsky beat Domingue to the far post with a wraparound goal to bring Dallas within 4-3. However, Gaudet restored the two-goal lead at 9:14, racing in with a Chipchura pass to slide a shot between Niemi's pads for his first NHL goal. Vermette hit the empty net with 1:46 to play.
Stars Quotes
Jamie Benn: "I don't think they caught us by surprise. We knew that the Hanzal line was a good line, and they definitely took it to us. They were better than us. They skated harder and worked harder. It's just embarrassing and unacceptable."Lindy Ruff: "I thought as a defense as a group we weren't very good. It started in the first period when we didn't keep it simple."
Jason Demers: "It was me making three big mistakes and they capitalized on their mistakes. I let the team down in a big way, and as a result we lost to a team that we should beat."
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