LAS VEGAS (AP) — Connor Ingram made 34 saves for his first shutout of the season and second in the NHL, Clayton Keller broke a scoreless tie with 9:22 left and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 2-0 on Saturday night.
Lawson Crouse added an empty-net goal with 1:17 left, his 10th goal this month and of the season. He has scored in five of his past six games.
Ingram’s first NHL shutout was Feb. 15 against Tampa Bay.
“I think I saw everything today, which is huge in this league,” Ingram said. “If you see it most of the time, you’re going to stop it. (The defense) did a good job of boxing guys out and blocking pucks I didn’t see, so huge props to them.”
Logan Thompson made 16 saves for the Knights, who were shut out for the third time in six games. They were shut out only twice all of last season on the way to winning the Stanley Cup.
“Their D did a good job tonight because they shut us out, but I think if we had played the right way, we could’ve exposed them, put a lot more pressure on them,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Some of the guys we rely on offense are not willing to do that right now. As a result, the offense has dried up. Until they’re willing to get back to basics, I can’t sit here and tell you we’re going to come out of it tomorrow or the next day because there’s a certain way to play.”
Arizona snapped a three-game losing streak despite a number of players out of the lineup because of injuries.
“It’s a Stanley Cup champion team on the other side,” Coyotes coach André Tourigny said. “The way we played defensively, the way we managed the puck, the way we managed our game, that’s what we’ve been begging for for a while. That’s what we’re capable of. I’m not saying we’ll play 82 (games) like that, but that mindset we had, that’s what we need to copy and paste.”
This was the Coyotes’ lone away game in an eight-game stretch, almost the mirror opposite for the Knights. This was the Knights’ only game at home during a nine-game stretch. Vegas dropped to 8-2-1 at T-Mobile Arena, but this was the second home defeat in three games.
Neither team scored through the first two periods, though the Knights held a 20-10 advantage on shots on goal.
They had two particularly top opportunities to score late in the second. William Karlsson stole the puck at the blue line and had a one-on-one with Ingram, but shot wide. Then on a power play, Ivan Barbashev passed to Alex Pietrangelo in front of the goal that Ingram snared with his glove.
The Coyotes had their own good looks at the goal, none better than Alexander Kerfoot’s shot from the slot that Thompson sprawled to save.
But then Keller put the Coyotes on the scoreboard and well on their way to victory.
“It was a tight-checking game,” Keller said. “Not a lot of great looks. I think we did a good job of sticking with it, and it was nice to see it go in there.”
UP NEXT:
Coyotes: Host Tampa Bay on Tuesday night to open a five-game homestand.
Golden Knights: At Calgary on Monday night to begin a three-game Canadian trip.