Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves and Nick Schmaltz had a goal and an assist to lead the Arizona Coyotes to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night in Tempe, Ariz.
Schmaltz, who has scored 11 goals over his last 13 games, tied his career long with a goal in his fourth straight game. Travis Boyd, Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain also scored goals and Clayton Keller added a pair of assists for Arizona, which snapped a two-game losing streak.
Andreas Athanasiou scored for Chicago, which suffered its second straight loss to finish 2-2 on its Western road trip. Alex Stalock, playing his first game since suffering a head injury on Jan. 14 against Seattle, finished with 29 saves for Chicago, which officially announced the trade of star forward Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers just a few hours before the start of the contest.
Arizona, playing without defenseman Jakob Chychrun and forward Nick Bjugstad -- both held out for trade-related reasons -- took a 1-0 lead at the 10:07 mark of the first period. Boyd cut across the slot and fired a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle that knuckled past the glove of Stalock for his ninth goal of the season.
The Coyotes made it 2-0 near the end of the period when Hayton tipped Schmaltz's point shot down and between Stalock's pads for his ninth goal of the season.
Arizona extended the lead to 3-0 late in the second period on a rebound shot from the slot by McBain that fluttered high in the air over Max Domi at the edge of the crease and then slowly bounced into the net for McBain's eighth goal of the season.
Schmaltz made it 4-0 midway through the third period when he one-timed a Keller pass from the bottom of the left circle off Stalock's right hip and into the net for his 18th goal of the season.
Athanasiou broke up Vejmelka's bid for his fourth shutout this season with just 1:29 remaining when he fired a wrist shot from the left circle five-hole for his 14th goal of the season.
--Field Level Media
Chicago | Arizona | |
Andreas Athanasiou 1 | Points | Nick Schmaltz 2 |
Andreas Athanasiou 1 | Goals | Nick Schmaltz 1 |
Philipp Kurashev 1 | Assists | Clayton Keller 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Alex Stalock .879 | Save Percentage | Karel Vejmelka .958 |
Alex Stalock 29 | Saves | Karel Vejmelka 23 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Chicago | 24 | 1 | 0-2 | 1-1 | 7 | 27 |
Arizona | 33 | 4 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 9 | 21 |