Neal's OT goal lifts Golden Knights over Coyotes
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- James Neal scored his third goal in two nights at 3:45 in overtime and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights rallied late to beat the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 and improve to 2-0 in their first NHL season.
Neal scored twice as Vegas won 2-1 at Dallas on Friday night in the franchise's first game, then rode a 42-28 edge in shots to deal Arizona its second difficult loss in as many games.
Down 1-0, Vegas pulled goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with just over two minutes left to create an artificial power play and Nate Schmidt, joining a rush late, raced to the the puck near the left post and directed it past Antti Raanta for his first of the season -- tying the game with 1:12 left and denying Raanta his ninth career shutout.
Neal then beat Raanta with a wrist shot as he skated through the left circle after Arizona had controlled most of the overtime. The Coyotes couldn't hold a 4-1 lead and lost their opener 5-4 at Anaheim on Thursday. Rick Tocchet is 0-2 as Arizona's coach.
Raanta, a former backup with the Rangers and Blackhawks, had leg spasms that kept him out of Arizona's opener, but made a series of key saves -- he stopped 40 shots -- only to see his shutout and the game slip away.
The biggest saves came as Arizona killed off a 5-on-3 Vegas power play that lasted 1:13 in the second period, turning aside Brendan Leipsic's shot from the right circles and shots by David Perron and Wiliam Karlsson on opposite sides of the net only seconds apart. By the third period, the Coyotes home crowd of 17,125 saluted Raanta by chanting his name.
Vegas was 0-for-4 on the power play and is 0-for-11 for the season after going 0-for-21 during the preseason.
Fleury was strong again as he started for the second successive night, making 27 saves, giving up only a goal to Tobias Rieder 5:52 into the game. Fleury has turned aside 72 of 74 shots this season.
Arizona had a pair of power plays early in the third period, but couldn't convert on either one as Fleury kept it a one-goal game.
NOTES: Arizona is 14-6-1 in home openers since relocating from Winnipeg in 1996. ... LW Nick Cousins, acquired from Philadelphia during the offseason, started on the Coyotes' second line after being a healthy scratch Thursday in Anaheim. RW Christian Fischer was scratched despite scoring a goal Thursday. ... The teams are playing five times, one more than usual because of the uneven NHL's 31-team alignment. They meet again Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas' first home game. ... Representatives of the other 30 teams, including Penguins star Sidney Crosby, taped "Vegas Strong" messages Friday to support the league's newest city -- in the same week as the mass shooting that killed 58 at a concert there Sunday. ... Vegas won 36 of 61 faceoffs. ... The Coyotes listed it as a sellout, but there were numerous empty seats.