Lack, Hurricanes bounce back, beat Coyotes

James Guillory—X02835
Hurricanes goalie Eddie Lack

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Three days after he ripped backup goalie Eddie Lack for allowing four goals on 16 shots in an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Hurricanes coach Bill Peters was feeling the sting of regret as he headed to the airport for Carolina’s road trip to Arizona.”Not my proudest moment,” Peters said.As Peters pulled onto the tarmac for the team’s charter flight to Phoenix on Saturday, Lack pulled into the space right next to him.”We had a great talk and a great walk from the cars to the plane,” Peters said. “I have a lot of respect for his game, a lot of respect for him as a player.”Peters’ respect grew on Sunday in Arizona. Derek Ryan knocked in a rebound off a fortunate bounce with 3:57 left in regulation, and Lack made 25 saves as the Hurricanes snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Coyotes at Gila River Arena.The win was Lack’s first since Feb. 24, and it helped Carolina rebound from a 4-2 loss to the Coyotes two days earlier in Raleigh.”I know there’s been a lot of talk about the Tampa game and everything, but the two games before that. I felt like I had my two best games of the season,” Lack said. “It was a good game to get my stats up a little bit, though.”Lack said that despite Peters’ criticism, which included the infamous directive, “Make a (bleep) save,” he didn’t feel added pressure on Sunday.”I have so many positive people around me,” he said. “I got so many phone calls and texts these last couple days. I just stayed positive and kept working hard.”Peter Holland scored the lone goal for Arizona, which got 33 saves from Mike Smith but wasted three power-play opportunities in the third period and lost for the fifth time in the past seven games.”Everyone has played a lot of hockey, so it’s a bad excuse to say we’ve played a lot of hockey this time of year,” said Smith, whose team has played seven games in the past 11 days. “It’s frustrating losing that way. You’re trying to win the game, and you give up a two-on-one.”Lack made back-to-back saves on Christian Dvorak and Oliver Ekman-Larsson late in the first period. He stopped Brendan Perlini on two good opportunities in the second period, moving post to post to smother a rebound chance on the second. He also stopped Tobias Rieder on a breakaway with three minutes left in the second that Peters called the key save of the game.Ryan scored the winner when Jeff Skinner’s initial shot deflected off Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun’s stick, off the far post and then back into the crease with Smith sprawled on the ice out of position.”I thought we played really well both these games against Arizona and really deserved to win both games,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to continue to play that way, continue to play fast. I think that’s the way we can beat teams.”Ryan’s goal materialized off an odd-man rush that typified the Coyotes’ mistakes in the game. Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo opted to pinch at the far blue line instead of falling back, and then he fell down, creating an odd-man rush.”It wasn’t the bounce off the post or the stick, it was the mistake that we made at the offensive blue line,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. “DeAngelo’s got no business being there.”If you want to be a winning team, you’ve got to take care of the puck. If you don’t, you give up a bunch of outnumbered rushes, you beat it around like a tennis ball, and that’s what you get.”The Coyotes took the lead when Lack couldn’t squeeze a rebound of Luke Schenn’s slap shot between his pads after Arizona’s Anthony Duclair deflected it. Holland was waiting near the crease to sweep the loose puck into the open net behind Lack for his third goal of the season and his second in his past four games at 3:23 of the second period.Carolina tied the score at 4:46 of the second period when right winger Teuvo Teravainen deflected Jaccob Slavin’s slap shot past Smith. It was Taravainen’s 12th goal of the season, which is one off his career high set last season with Chicago.NOTES: Hurricanes LW Phil Di Giuseppe left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return. He is listed as day-to-day. … The Hurricanes reinserted D Matt Tennyson into the lineup alongside D Ryan Murphy and in place of former Coyotes D Klas Dahlbeck. Tennyson has played just four of the team’s past 15 games. … Coyotes D Kevin Connauton (upper-body injury) is week-to-week. C Alexander Burmistrov is out at least a week with a concussion. … With Connauton out, coach Dave Tippett said the Coyotes would operate with six defensemen for the time being, with the ability to call up another easily from nearby Tucson of the AHL.