Edmonton Oilers come up short in OT loss to Coyotes

Mattias Maccelli scored in overtime to give the Arizona Coyotes a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night at Rogers Place.

“I thought we did a good job focusing on what we needed to do, but didn’t have the best start,” Oilers forward Adam Henrique said post-game. “I thought we battled. We had opportunities but couldn’t find that next one to give us that extra momentum.”

“I thought we were a little off early on,” Evander Kane said.

The Coyotes scored the only goal of the first period when Josh Doan popped a rebound past Calvin Pickard.

Henrique struck for his 23rd of the season when he slid the puck under Karel Vejmelka 1:49 into the second. Arizona regained the lead less than four minutes later thanks to Logan Cooley sneaking the puck past Pickard.

Darnell Nurse made it 2-2 1:12 into the third period when his point shot eluded Vejmelka.

Pickard made two stunning saves in rapid succession early in overtime. He shot out his left pad to stymie Nick Schmaltz, then he deftly moved to his right to turn away Clayton Keller’s one-timer.

“He played great,” Henrique said of Pickard. “Since I’ve been here, every game he’s been in, he’s given us the opportunity to win the game. A lot of times those guys fall into the tougher schedule of back-to-backs and whatnot, but that guy comes in and is a gamer and gives us an opportunity to win every night.”

“Picks made a lot of good saves early to give us an opportunity,” Knoblauch said. “Early, it could’ve gotten out of hand and he made some huge saves. And also in overtime–made those two back-to-back saves.”

However, Maccelli would fire a wrister past Pickard’s glove to end it 1:35 into overtime.

Vejmelka finished with 37 saves. Pickard made 24.

With the point for the overtime loss, the Oilers are assured of having home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Oilers, 48-24-6, will host the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 6:30 p.m., game at 8 p.m.).

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