JOSE M. ROMERO
Associated Press
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — There might not be a starting goaltender controversy for the Arizona Coyotes yet, though Devan Dubnyk will at least be discussed when head coach Dave Tippett and goaltending coach Sean Burke talk about who is in goal for the Coyotes’ next game.
That’s because Dubnyk, a six-year NHL veteran who was traded twice last season, got the call over Coyotes No. 1 goalie Mike Smith and stopped 24 shots in a 3-2 overtime win over the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.
Oliver Ekman-Larrson beat Jonathan Quick with a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net on a power play with 14 seconds left in overtime, giving the Coyotes (1-1) their first win of the season.
The Kings, coming off a shutout loss in their season-opening game, scored their first goals of the 2014-2015 campaign. But they fell despite taking a 2-0 lead in the first period.
An apparent goal for the Coyotes’ Shane Doan with 2:47 left to play in regulation was waved off when Doan was called for interference. That gave the Kings a late power play, but they couldn’t convert.
Dubnyk’s save on the Kings’ Tyler Toffoli with 11 seconds left in regulation forced overtime.
Dubnyk, 28, hadn’t won a game since Jan. 10 with Edmonton, a 4-3 overtime win over Pittsburgh. He’d been told before the season opened that he would play in one of Arizona’s first four games.
“It’s nice to get an opportunity. I know my spot here so you don’t know when the opportunities are going to come. So to be able to get a win like that is fun to do,” Dubnyk said. “It’s been a roller coaster, mostly slowing down for me for a while now.”
Ekman-Larrson got his winner with the Coyotes on a power play after Toffoli was whistled for hooking Arizona’s Martin Hanzal with 1:19 left in overtime.
Quick made 37 saves in defeat for Los Angeles (0-1-1).
The Kings looked poised for a win early on, as a pair of turnovers in the Arizona defensive zone led to the Kings’ goals. It took Los Angeles 1:32 to get on the board, with Tanner Pearson scooping a loose puck and shooting it past Dubnyk.
Lauri Korpiskoski, the player guilty of losing the puck on Pearson’s goal, had two good chances to score in the first seven minutes, but was turned away though the Coyotes outshot the Kings 15-10 in the first period.
Los Angeles had 16 more shots over the rest of the game and was outshot 40-26 overall.
Jeff Carter gave the Kings a 2-0 lead at 12:57 of the first when Michael Stone’s errant pass landed at his stick, and Carter had time to wind up and fire a wrist shot past Dubnyk.
The Coyotes, who like the Kings were thoroughly outplayed in their season opener, a 6-2 loss to Winnipeg on Thursday, got a goal back on a power play with 39 seconds left in the first period. It came thanks to a redirection of Keith Yandle’s shot from the point that glanced off Antoine Vermette and past Quick.
The Kings could have led by more, but Dubnyk came up with a sprawling save on Carter’s shot before Arizona’s goal.
“Our whole group knew we needed to be better,” Tippett said. “We played well and it was a game we deserved to win.”
Quick came up big at 7:14 of the second when he swatted away a close-range shot from the Coyotes’ Rob Klinkhammer to keep the Kings in the lead, 2-1. But the Kings were caught trying to make substitutions when Mikkel Boedker streaked down the ice with the loose puck and beat Quick to tie the score.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter didn’t seem concerned about his team’s first two performances.
“It’s important that we played better than we did last (game), so it’s important that we continue to take those little steps,” Sutter said.
NOTES: Dubnyk got the start, even though Smith was 2-0-0 against the Kings last season and is 11-4-0-1 against them in his career and has more wins against the Kings than any other team. . Ekman-Larrson set a career high for shots in a game with eight. . Yandle’s two assists gave him 23 points in his career against the Kings.
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