Phil Kessel had a hat trick and also prevented a goal as the Arizona Coyotes completed a two-game sweep of the visiting San Jose Sharks with a 4-0 victory on Saturday night in Glendale, Ariz.
Clayton Keller added a goal and two assists and Adin Hill made 34 saves for his second career shutout of his career as the Coyotes won their third consecutive game and for the fourth time in their past five.
Sharks goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced.
San Jose’s Patrick Marleau played in his 1,756th NHL game, tying Mark Messier for second place on the league’s all-time list. Marleau is 11 games behind career leader Gordie Howe.
The first period was scoreless, thanks in part to Kessel. Midway through the period, San Jose’s Rudolfs Balcers skated in on a breakaway, but Hill stopped the shot. The rebound floated toward the goal, but Kessel knocked the puck out of mid-air.
Keller opened the scoring at 5:49 of the second on a two-on-one break with Kessel. Keller skated down the left wing and used Kessel as a decoy, slipping a shot between Dubnyk’s pads from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
Kessel made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 14:16. Oliver Ekman-Larsson found Kessel wide open at the right point and the veteran forward took advantage by skating to the top of the faceoff circle and putting a wrist shot past Dubnyk, who was screened by the Coyotes’ Christian Fischer.
Kessel made it 3-0 at 14:03 of the third, muscling his own rebound past Dubnyk. He completed his seventh career hat trick on an empty-net goal with 2:32 remaining.
Kessel, who also scored in Friday’s 5-2 victory, extended his point streak to five games (five goals, three assists) and also scored against San Jose for the fifth straight game in the series.
The Sharks’ Kurtis Gabriel received a five-minute major for interference
and a game misconduct in the third period for laying out Arizona’s Johan Larson with a high hit.
–Field Level Media