Avalanche top Coyotes in game marred by fights
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Matt Nieto had a goal and an assist as the Colorado Avalanche scored four goals in less than four minutes following a series of nasty mid-ice fights and went on to beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 Saturday night.
Carl Soderberg began the flurry of scoring and J.T. Compher and Nail Yakupov followed by scoring on the same power play resulting from Coyotes center Zac Rinaldo's match penalty as the Avalanche needed only 3:46 to turn a scoreless game into a 4-0 lead.
Soderberg finished with two goals and Alexander Kerfoot had a pair of assists. Semyon Varlamov turned aside 31 shots despite allowing two short-handed goals to Derek Stepan, helping the Avalanche improve to 5-2-1 in their last eight games.
Arizona, which halted a seven-game losing streak by beating Washington 3-2 in overtime Friday, lost its eighth in nine games and 11th in 13 games.
The game flipped suddenly after Rinaldo leveled Nathan MacKinnon with a shoulder hit in the neutral zone, then dropped Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard when he rushed in to defend MacKinnon. Rinaldo also skirmished with defenseman Erik Johnson at the same time newly acquired Coyotes forward Josh Archibald fought with MacKinnon.
Rinaldo, Archibald and MacKinnon subsequently were ejected. By drawing a match penalty, Rinaldo is automatically suspended until the NHL reviews the sequence.
Colorado quickly seized control of the game despite apparently getting the worst of the fighting, and losing its leading scorer in MacKinnon. Colorado also was without defenseman Tyson Barrie (injured hand) for the final two periods.
Soderberg scored 4-on-4 at 10:20 of the second with a wrist shot that deflected off the left post and past goalie Antti Raanta. Compher made it 2-0 on a power play only 1:16 later, and Yakupov then caused the Coyotes to yank Raanta by scoring Avalanche's second power-play goal in a span of 1:50.
Only 40 seconds after Scott Wedgewood replaced Raanta, Nieto scored his fifth of the season from the low slot.
Stepan later became the first Coyotes player to score two short-handed goals in the same game since Tobias Rieder in 2014 to briefly make it 4-2, but Sven Andrighetto scored on a power play only 29 seconds following Stepan's second goal. Soderberg finished it off with his second goal and sixth of the season later in the third.
NOTES: Colorado D Tyson Barrie was struck on the right hand by an Oliver Ekman-Larsson shot in the first period and did not return. ... Avalanche D Erik Johnson returned after serving a two-game suspension for boarding. ... The teams play again Wednesday in Denver following the league's three-day Christmas break. The NHL hasn't played on Christmas since 1972. ... Arizona LW Anthony Duclair started on the top line after being scratched the previous two games. LW Brendan Perlini went from being on the No. 1 line Friday to being scratched. ... Arizona D Niklas Hjalmarsson (upper body) still hasn't played since Nov. 28, and his return is uncertain. He's appeared in only five games since Oct. 30. ... The teams skated 5-on-5, 4-on-4, 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 in the final 2:55 of the first period following three quick penalties, two on Colorado.