Raanta shines in net as Coyotes shut out Blues
Antti Raanta had 34 saves while picking up his third shutout of the season, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Richard Panik each had a goal and an assist to lead the Arizona Coyotes to a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz.
Raanta improved to 15-5-4 since Jan. 4 with his 11th career shutout. Luke Schenn, Jakob Chychrun, Alex Goligoski and Zac Rinaldo also scored for Arizona, which won 10 games in March for just the fifth time in franchise history. The Coyotes, who started the season 0-10-1, are 19-13-6 in 2018 and improved to 17-1-1 in their last 19 games when allowing two goals or less.
Jake Allen, making his 12th straight start, had 12 saves for St. Louis before giving way early in the second period for Carter Hutton right after surrendering a goal to Panik. Hutton stopped just 15 of the 19 shots he faced.
Despite the loss, the Blues remain in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference tied with Colorado with four games to go. Although the two teams are tied in points, St. Louis holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. The two teams end the season with a game in Denver.
Schenn gave Arizona a 1-0 lead in the first period with his first goal since April 6, 2017 at Vancouver when he blasted in a shot from the point.
The Coyotes then blew the game open with three goals in the second period. Panik got the first when he fired a wrist shot from right circle past Allen's glove, sending Allen to the bench.
Ekman-Larsson made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at the 15:09 mark, one-timing a pass from Panik in the slot past Hutton's stick side for his 14th goal of the season. Chychrun, celebrating his 20th birthday, scored his fourth goal of the season with 20 seconds left in the period with a wrist shot over Hutton's glove.
Goligoski scored his 12th goal in the third period, one-timing a pass from Max Domi from the right circle past Hutton's glove hand. Rinaldo finished the scoring with 2:20 to go, with Domi and Dylan Strome each garnering their third assist of the night on the play. Derek Stepan also had two assists for the Coyotes.
--Field Level Media
