Christian Dvorak tallied twice, snapping a 15-game goal-less drought, as the Arizona Coyotes defeated the visiting San Jose Sharks 5-2 Friday night in Glendale, Ariz.
The teams will wrap up their two-game series Saturday night at Gila River Arena.
Nick Schmaltz, Dryden Hunt and Phil Kessel also scored for the Coyotes, who won their second game in a row and third in the past four. Oliver Ekman-Larsson added two assists and goaltender Adin Hill made 20 saves.
Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Martin Jones stopped 23 of 28 shots.
Leading 2-1 entering the third period, the Coyotes scored three goals in a span of 2:11 midway through the period to pull away.
Dvorak scored his second of the night at 7:48 of the third, knocking down Brent Burns’ clearing attempt at the blue line and skating in alone before beating Jones with a backhander.
Hunt made it 4-1 at 9:08, putting a rebound off the right post and into the net.
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Kessel, playing in his 1,100th career NHL game, scored a power-play goal at 9:59 on a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circles after taking a pass from Clayton Keller.
San Jose’s Marleau capped the scoring with a power-play tally at 12:30. It was his 564th career goal, tying him with Mats Sundin and Joe Nieuwendyk for 23rd place in NHL history.
Dvorak gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead in the first period on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle at 6:20 following a pass from behind the net from Conor Garland.
Hertl tied the score just 1:54 into the second with a short-handed goal, driving down the left wing on a two-on-one break with Evander Kane and beating Hill with a wrist shot.
Schmaltz gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead at 18:44 of the second, redirecting Ilya Lyubushkin’s pass from the point into the net.
–Field Level Media