Minnesota Wild's dominance over Coyotes continues in Arizona's 5-2 loss

What started promisingly for the Coyotes on Tuesday ended in an all-too-familiar result against the Minnesota Wild, as the host team took control with three second-period goals and sent the Coyotes to a 5-2 defeat.

The Central Division-leading Wild ran its winning streak to eight straight games overall against the Coyotes, including two wins in the first two meetings this season. In all eight losses, the Coyotes (5-16-2) have lost by at least three goals even though on Tuesday, Arizona took a 1-0 lead early.

"I love the way they play. They play a simple game. They don't turn the puck over. They don't let you have pretty strong chances ... and they go hard at you on the forecheck," Coyotes head coach André Tourigny said of the Wild. "The pucks are at the net a lot. They don't do anything that makes it easy to counter."

Clayton Keller took over the team lead in goals with his sixth, scoring on a nifty spin move and wrist shot at 5:58 of the first period. Phil Kessel got the primary assist, his ninth of the season.

Keller has nine points in the last seven games he's played. He had seven of the Coyotes' 31 shots on goal, which was more than double their total from the night before in Winnipeg.

Minnesota tied it just over a minute later, with Joel Eriksson Ek's goal off a turnover. It was the first of four unanswered, and Kirill Kaprizov, Jordan Greenway and Jonas Brodin scored the three second-period goals for the Wild.

Brodin scored with four seconds left.

"Tough period. We let those two goals in, especially the last one," Coyotes defenseman Anton Stralman said. "We know what we have to clean up.

"I think we wasted maybe a little too much energy playing defense," Stralman added. "They had quite a bit of possession."

Kaprizov, with five goals and five assists in eight games against the Coyotes last season, added an assist. Greenway, with six points against the Coyotes last season when both teams were in the reconfigured West Division, had two assists for a three-point night.

Stralman's slap shot from long range zipped through the crease and into the net for the defenseman's second goal of the season, making it 4-2 early in the third period, but Marcus Foligno gave the Wild a three-goal lead with 12:18 left to play.

Jakob Chychrun and Keller got assists. Goaltender Scott Wedgewood stopped 32 of 37 shots on goal.

The Coyotes made some changes to their lineup from the previous night, with Andrew Ladd and Alex Galchenyuk as healthy scratches and Johan Larsson back in to center the fourth line and Hudson Fasching active.

"It was good to have him back," Tourigny said.

Larsson hadn't played since Nov. 13, after which he went into the NHL's COVID protocol and missed seven games. He got into a scrap with Minnesota's Kevin Fiala with 37 seconds left in the game, and was issued a double-minor penalty.

Liam O'Brien got into his fifth fight of the season for the Coyotes, drawing a five-minute penalty. His 41 penalty minutes lead the team this season.

'Bear' track

Tourigny spoke further on the difficulty of playing the Wild, which improved to 15-6-1.

Up next

The Coyotes return to the Valley and will play four of the next five games at home, starting with the Vegas Golden Knights Friday night. Arizona plays those five games over the next 16 days, which will allow for some rest.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Coyotes lose big to Minnesota Wild again, giving up four unanswered goals