Coyotes score 3-1 victory over Avalanche
DENVER -- Tobias Rieder, Alex Goligoski and Lawson Crouse scored goals, Antti Raanta made 25 saves, and the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center.
The Coyotes (9-25-5) won for the second time in three games after going 1-8-2 in their previous 11 contests.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots for Colorado. The Avalanche (17-16-3) have lost home games to the two worst teams in the league this month. The Buffalo Sabres beat Colorado 4-2 on Dec. 5.
Goligoski broke a 1-1 tie midway through the second period after Colorado's Tyson Jost turned the puck over in the Arizona end. Clayton Keller stole the puck, and carried into the Avalanche zone, then fed Goligoski for his fourth goal.
Colorado had chances to tie it early in the third period. Matt Nieto hit the right post early, and Nathan MacKinnon was stopped on a breakaway at 5:10 of the period.
After Nikita Zadorov hit the crossbar late in the third, Crouse gave Arizona a two-goal lead when he scored on a give-and-go with Josh Archibald at 15:35 of the period.
Varlamov came off for an extra skater with 1:53 remaining, but Colorado didn't score.
Rieder gave Arizona the lead with his sixth goal 54 seconds into the game. He got the puck when Brendan Perlini bounced a pass off the backboards to Rieder, who snuck it past Varlamov before the goaltender slid over.
Rantanen tied it at 3:56 of the first when he got a stretch pass from Erik Johnson and beat Raanta with a high shot to the short side. It was his 11th goal of the season.
The Avalanche took two delay-of-game penalties seven seconds apart late in the first period, but the Coyotes didn't score on the five-on-three that spanned the first and second periods.
NOTES: Arizona C Zac Rinaldo was given a six-game suspension by the NHL Department of Player Safety an hour before the opening faceoff. Rinaldo was suspended for punching an unsuspecting player, Colorado D Samuel Girard, in Saturday's game. Rinaldo started his suspension Wednesday. ... Avalanche D Tyson Barrie is expected to miss four to six weeks with a broken bone in his right hand. Barrie sustained the break blocking a shot in Colorado's 6-2 victory over the Coyotes on Saturday. ... Arizona recalled F Lawson Crouse from Tucson of the AHL before the game. He was in the lineup in place of Rinaldo. ... Avalanche RW Mikko Rantanen extended his points streak to seven games (two goals, six assists).