Coyotes win again at Mullett Arena with 4 unanswered goals in third period vs. Leafs

There's always a buzz in the building when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Scottsdale native Auston Matthews make their annual visit to Arizona, and Thursday night was no different.

Coyotes staff decorated Mullett Arena in Reverse Retro replica "desert sienna" colored jerseys, which were placed on every seat in the building. But there was no keeping out the blue and white-clad fans of Canada's darlings of hockey, the Leafs, and the noise those folks made for their team.

So the Coyotes did to the Maple Leafs what they have done so often for almost 17 years. They defeated Toronto, this time 6-3 with Toronto native Jack McBain breaking a tie with 6:17 to play that helped the Coyotes to a fourth straight win over the Leafs. Arizona improved to 6-1-1 over the last eight meetings and is 18-4-2 against the Leafs over 24 games between the two teams since Jan. 4, 2006.

It took a comeback in the third period, with a tying goal from J.J. Moser before McBain tapped in a Lawson Crouse pass off a Maple Leafs turnover. Then McBain and Barrett Hayton finished off Toronto with empty net goals.

Hayton had a goal and two assists.

The Coyotes trailed 2-1 (outshot 13-2) after the first period and 3-2 after the second. They had only one win when trailing going into the third period this season until Thursday.

Nick Bjugstad scored 46 seconds into the game and Jakob Chychrun also scored for the Coyotes, who are 6-1-1 in their last eight home games. After stunning the team with the second-best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference, the Coyotes (13-16-5, 31 points) are closer to a wild card spot in the Western Conference then they are to the worst record in the West.

Five takeaways from the Coyotes' win:

McBain's big night

McBain tallied his first career game-winning goal and first career multi-goal game. The 22-year-old center was among those to get a hand slap or pat on the shoulder from Coyotes majority owner Alex Meruelo, who congratulated players in the locker room after the game.

"Great game!" Meruelo told McBain. "Very proud of you."

"I think Toronto's got a pretty big following anywhere they go," McBain said. "But I mean, you get Matthews in here in his hometown, so it was a great battle whole game. ... It was great. It feels good to get those points, yeah."

"He played with a lot of passion. He was physical. He was very fast. He won a lot of battles, he was one of our best players," Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said of McBain.

Chychrun still hot

Chychrun's goal in the second period tied the game at 2, and gave the veteran defenseman 17 points in his 18 games played. In eight Coyotes homes games in which he's played, he has 10 points and scored his first goal at Mullett Arena on Thursday.

Bjugstad's consistency

Bjugstad has three points plus a game-winning shootout goal in his last three games after he had a goal and assist Thursday.

Tourigny said he's run out good things to say about Bjugstad, who has done more than just score points on a consistent basis of late. Tourigny called Bjugstad a "difference maker" with his size and speed.

"I think everyone buys into the systems that are being preached, and everyone's doing a good job of that. So I think ... we're a hard team to play against," Bjugstad said. "And most teams don't like coming into the Mullett. It's a different rink. (So we) try to use it to our advantage. So we're making some fun with it."

Timmins in Tempe

Coyotes fans might remember former defenseman Conor Timmins, a former top prospect with the Colorado Avalanche who came over in the trade for Darcy Kuemper and a first-round pick before the 2021-2022 season.

In Timmins, the Coyotes figured they had an NHL-ready player who could turn into a top player as he gained experience. It didn't work out that way, and now it looks like Timmins could realize his potential in Toronto. He has eight assists in 12 games with the Leafs, including two on Thursday on power play goals.

Timmins missed most of his first season with the Coyotes due to a knee injury that required surgery, then played two games for the Coyotes and six with AHL Tucson before being traded to the Maple Leafs.

Setting the DVR

Tourigny said he doesn't have the time to watch the IIHF World Junior Championships in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where five Coyotes prospects are playing for four different countries. Two of those are the top draft picks from the past two years, Canada's Dylan Guenther (2021) and the USA's Logan Cooley (2022).

Tourigny will get to it when he can. He's a big fan of the tournament and said the experience of playing in the World Juniors is invaluable.

"It's huge because right now there's a bunch of no-names playing out there. In 10 years, those guys will be at the (NHL) All-Star game. That's what it is, the best players in the world.," Tourigny said. "So you play against the best players of your age, you have a chance to for example Guenther, to have an important role in his team. Same thing for Cooley, to be on the biggest stage you can find at that age."

Games are played in front of NHL personnel executives and media from around the world. The tournament gets high TV viewership in hockey countries outside the U.S, Tourigny said.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Coyotes scored four unanswered goals in win over Toronto Maple Leafs