Clayton Keller scored a goal and assisted on the winner as the Arizona Coyotes edged the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 on Wednesday night.
Derek Stepan’s goal with:58 left in the third period gave the visiting Coyotes their ninth win in the past 13 games. With the win, Arizona moved out of a tie for last place overall with Buffalo.
“We’re really starting to play our systems and we’re playing the right way,” Keller told Sportsnet after the victory.
Stepan put in a high shot from the slot after taking a long pass from Keller after he worked the puck along the boards. Jussi Jokinen, with his first goal in a Vancouver uniform, tallied for the Canucks, who played without injured star rookie winger Brock Boeser after he suffered a season-ending back injury in Monday’s overtime victory over the New York Islanders.
The Canucks thought they had scored a shorthanded goal late in the first period as Brandon Sutter lifted a backhand over Darcy Kuemper on a breakaway. But the goal was waved off after a video review showed that the puck hit the crossbar and then slid along the goal line and out.
Kuemper picked up the win in goal for the Coyotes as he blocked 16 of only 17 Vancouver shots. Jacob Markstrom took the loss while stopping 32 of 34 fired on his net. Despite the strong showing, he also got lucky as Arizona hit the post three times.
Keller officially opened the scoring on a power play at 18:22 of the first period as he put his own rebound past Markstrom. Initially, it appeared that Markstrom had caught the puck as he made a sensational save, but the puck came loose and Vancouver defenseman Alex Edler could not cover the disk in time before Keller poked it in.
Arizona’s goal threatened to deflate the Canucks and the crowd, but Jokinen one-timed Brendan Leipsic’s pass behind Kuemper with only 11 seconds left in the opening frame.
Both the Coyotes and Canucks are destined to miss the playoffs. The game could eventually have implications in the NHL draft lottery.
Both clubs are dwelling near the bottom of the overall NHL standings and will likely pick somewhere in the top six, depending on how they finish.

Flames end skid with romp over Sabres
 Mark Giordano, Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski all collected one goal and one assist as the Calgary Flames thumped the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 in NHL action Wednesday night in Buffalo.
The Flames snapped a four-game losing skid with the win at KeyBank Center, dominating the lowly Sabres from the drop of the puck. The only disappointment for the Flames was that goalie David Rittich, who made 25 saves, lost his bid for the first shutout of his NHL career with 17.1 seconds left in the affair.
Bennett started the onslaught at the 5:35 mark of the opening frame, finishing a goal-mouth scramble. Sabres goalie Chad Johnson swatted the puck away from Garnet Hathaway before he could get a stick on it in the crease, but Bennett was on the spot amidst the chaos and buried his 10th goal of the season.
Jankowski doubled the lead exactly three minutes later, netting the 12th goal of his rookie season. Jankowski took a pass from Bennett after he crossed the blueline, opted to shoot on the one-on-two rush it created and beat Johnson with his effort from the slot.
The scoring parade was just beginning. Giordano extended the lead with his 12th tally of the season exactly five minutes into the second period when he blasted a point shot that Johnson could only get a piece of before it found the net.
Sean Monahan joined the fun 61 seconds later to make it a 4-0 lead. Monahan converted a one-timer fed by Johnny Gaudreau to pot his 30th goal of the season, a milestone he’s reached for the second time in his career. The goal also spelled the end of the game for Johnson, who surrendered four goals on 22 shots before being pulled in favour of Robin Lehner.

RESULTS
Calgary 5 Buffalo 1 
Pittsburgh 5 Philadelphia 2 
Arizona 2 Vancouver 1