Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves to help the Arizona Coyotes to a 2-1 win in their home opener against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz.
Jason Zucker and Clayton Keller scored for Arizona, which has won two in a row.
Frank Vatrano scored and Lukas Dostal made 26 saves for Anaheim, which has lost two in a row.
Arizona went on its second power play in the first period after Ducks rookie Leo Carlsson was called for interference against Lawson Crouse.
Arizona won the faceoff to start the penalty and Juuso Valimaki and Matias Maccelli passed the puck back and forth along the blue line before Valimaki sent the puck to Zucker at the top of the right circle He scored with a one-timer under Dostal’s left armpit for a 1-0 lead at 17:41 of the first period.
Arizona made it 2-0 at 14:01 of the second period, keeping possession of the puck during a long delayed penalty before Keller took advantage of a screen and sent a wrist shot from the top of the right circle past Dostal for his third goal of the season.
Vejmelka made 17 saves in the second period, including six during an Anaheim power play late in the period, but the Ducks did not have a shot on goal in the third until Vatrano scored their first power-play goal of the season to cut it to 2-1 at 7:47.
Adam Henrique fed the puck ahead to Jakob Silfverberg coming through the right circle and he passed the puck to Vatrano coming through the left circle for the redirection.
Anaheim’s top line of Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry and Carlsson combined to take 18 of its 33 shots on goal.
The Ducks went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and are 13-for-20 on the season.
Arizona was down to 10 forwards for the final period after Michael Carcone (upper-body injury) and Zucker (lower-body injury) departed.
–Field Level Media