Clayton Keller, Brendan Perlini carry Arizona Coyotes to win over Montreal Canadiens

For the Coyotes, Thursday’s game featured a wide range of emotions — from the bench breaking out into laughter, to their goaltender chewing them out.

But when the smoke cleared, the Coyotes emerged victorious with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at Gila River Arena. It was Arizona’s third straight win and fifth straight game earning at least one point.

Rookie Clayton Keller registered a career-high four points, and Brendan Perlini scored twice in the span of 19 seconds as the Coyotes held off a third-period comeback on Thursday. The Canadiens, on the second night of a back-to-back after playing at Colorado on Wednesday, lost their fourth straight.

“I liked our start and then, obviously, Montreal came back,” Tocchet said. “I don’t know if it was because of three (games) in four nights, but we were a little sluggish. It’s a learning experience for a team that sometimes you’ll have your game, but you have to be mentally strong. I thought we kind of let our foot off the gas pedal.”

Perlini’s first goal came on the forecheck as center Derek Stepan dug the puck out behind the Canadiens net. He reversed a pass to rookie Clayton Keller, who found Perlini all alone in front of the net just 57 seconds into the second period.

Before the public address announcer had a chance to name Perlini as the goal scorer, Perlini took a breakout pass from Ekman-Larsson that slip the Montreal defense in half. The 21-year-old winger skated hard to the net and beat Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, who finished with 16 saves, on his right side.

What was going through Perlini’s head after burying his second goal in less than 20 seconds?

“Nothing really,” Perlini said. “Same as every other goal. Just happy. Now let’s go do it again.”

The back-to-back tallies were the quickest by the same Coyotes player since Shane Doan accomplished the feat in 14 seconds in December of 2015. The fastest two-goal span by a player in franchise history was Deron Quint, who tied an NHL record when he scored twice in four seconds with the then-Winnipeg Jets in 1995.

“That quick-strike ability is something we’ve been striving for all year,” Tocchet said. “These kids, we’re going to keep putting them out there to grow these guys. Like I said, (Perlini) has a chance to be a hell of a hockey player. He’s got a hell of a shot. Getting those two goals in 19 seconds was huge for us.

The Coyotes opened the scoring at 13:56 of the first period, a slapshot goal by Keller on the power play for his team-leading 17th tally of the season. Ekman-Larsson — who broke his stick on the shift — delivered the final pass using the stick of teammate Brad Richardson, whose stick is inches shorter than Ekman-Larsson’s.

“My back is a little bit sore from that,” Ekman-Larsson, who finished with three assists, joked after the game. “I just grabbed a stick and it felt pretty good since we scored after that. It was a different brand and curve and a little bit shorter, too. It worked out pretty good.”

Tocchet said the entire Coyotes bench was laughing at the sight of the 6-foot-2-inch Ekman-Larsson hunched over using Richardson’s stick.

“The bench was laughing and then we score,” Tocchet said. “It was kind of a funny moment. Everybody was on the bench laughing, but (Oliver) actually did a nice job. It’s mini hockey.”

But no one on the Coyotes bench was laughing when play moved to the third period, as the Canadiens mounted a comeback in the opening minutes of the final frame.

Canadiens forwards Brendan Gallagher and Daniel Carr took advantage of poor defensive coverage scored at 5:46 and 7:38 of the third period, respectively. Coyotes goaltender Antti Raanta, who made 34 saves in the win, went to the bench and laid into his teammates.

After Raanta said his peace, the Coyotes scored two more goals to ice their third straight win.

“I thought (Raanta) was terrific,” Tocchet said. “He came by the bench and he was mad. He woke our team up. I love that, and when he did that we scored a goal. Two more goals after that. We loved it.”

The Coyotes got their fourth goal on the power play at 10:46 when winger Tobias Rieder one-timed a puck past Price for his second goal in the last three games. Less than six minutes later, winger Josh Archibald potted one to put the game out of reach.

Den’s digest

The score: Coyotes 5, Canadiens 2.

The streak: W3.

The record: 16-32-10, 8th in Pacific.

The 82-game pace: 23-45-14.

The player: Clayton Keller.

The moment: Tobias Rieder’s power-play goal at 10:46 of the third period that prevented the Coyotes’ lead from dissipating.

The number: 4 — Keller registered a career-high four points in Thursday’s win, involving himself in all four of the team’s five goals.

The quote: “He had a spell there where he was tired. I don’t know if he was mentally tired. As a kid you’re trying to figure yourself out in the NHL and I think in the last seven games he’s back to the Clayton of the first couple months. Four points tonight, a couple of nice passes and the goal. The power play was good tonight.” — Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet on the recent play of Keller.

View from the press box: This game had a little bit of everything. The Canadiens, like the Blackhawks, came into Gila River Arena playing a poor brand of hockey and the Coyotes made them pay. For the Coyotes, the difference from earlier in the season is how they responded to Montreal’s third-period push. In October or November, they might have crumbled. That was not the case on Thursday.

Song of the night: “Bury it” by CHVRCHES.

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