Dylan Guenther scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period as the Arizona Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 on Friday night to snap a 14-game losing streak.
Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli also scored to help the Coyotes get their first win since Jan. 22 and end an 0-12-2 skid. Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 shots to get his first win since Dec. 27 after going 0-8-0 in 10 appearances since.
“It’s [big] for everybody,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “For coaches, management, our fans, our media, everybody. You want to be in a winning environment. You want to have success.”
The victory kept the Coyotes from matching their worst winless streak since the franchise moved to Phoenix before the 1996-97 season. The original Winnipeg Jets have the longest winless streak in franchise history, going 30 games without a victory from Oct. 19-Dec. 20, 1980.
The winless streak had been the longest in an NHL season since the Buffalo Sabres went 18 games without a victory in 2020-21.
Guenther scored a power-play goal at 4:18 of the third, beating Senators goalie Anton Forsberg under the arm to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead after they gave up a three-goal advantage.
“It’s a big relief,” Guenther said. “I think we’ve been playing really well lately. It’s just really nice to get that out of the way and continue to play well.”
Maccelli added an empty-netter with 1:15 remaining to seal the win.
“Everybody has wanted to win for a long time,” Vejmelka said. “It tastes special for us, for now. A lot of emotions for us. I’m glad and happy for the team. We finally did it.”
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk left the game with 3:30 remaining in regulation. Tkachuk had been hit earlier in the period.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto scored for the Senators, who have lost three in a row. Forsberg had 26 saves as a late replacement for Joonas Korpisalo (illness).
“I got a lot of shots at the start to settle in a little bit,” Forsberg said. “I don’t think our start was great, obviously, being down 3-0 in the first. … I mean we came back strong. Last period I’ve got to make that save to give us a chance to win.”
Carcone opened the scoring for Arizona 7:31 into the game as he got the rebound of Liam O’Brien‘s shot and beat Forsberg through traffic. Moser made it 2-0 with a shot from the top of the faceoff circle a little more than five minutes later.
Schmaltz pushed the lead to 3-0 on a two-man advantage with 4:23 left in the first when he got a cross-ice pass from Maccelli and roofed the puck short side for his 17th.
“I think the beginning of the game we’ve got to be better, but special teams, they got two power plays and I thought there were some calls that were questionable and we didn’t get any calls,” Senators interim coach Jacques Martin said. “I thought that was the difference in the game.”
Tarasenko got the Senators on the board with 1:51 left in the opening period with a shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
Ottawa outshot Arizona 19-4 in the second and scored twice 2:03 apart to tie it.
Batherson cut the lead to one with 6:11 remaining as he pulled back a rebound of Jacob Bernard-Docker‘s shot and wristed it past Vejmelka. Pinto then tied it with a power-play goal with 4:08 left in the period.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: At Washington on Sunday to finish a five-game trip.
Senators: At Philadelphia on Saturday night to open a four-game trip.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.