Boyd scored twice as the Coyotes snapped the Canucks’ 5-game win streak.
The Arizona Coyotes held a team meeting after the All-Star break in hopes of finding some kind of spark during another disappointing season.
All that was said, it worked, shaping the Coyotes into one of the better NHL teams since the break.
“We kind of hit the refresh button and since then we’ve been positive every day and playing the right way,” said Coyotes forward Lawson Crouse, who scored in the third period. “That’s what led us to all these wins and point streaks.”
Prosvetov helped the Coyotes convert an early penalty in his second start this season, and Boyd had his second multi-goal game this month, ending five seasons without one.
look | Boyd leads Coyotes ahead of Canucks:
Two goals from Travis Boyd helped Arizona beat Vancouver 3-2 on Thursday night.
Arizona is 5-0-2 since losing to Carolina on March 3, has won five straight home games and his 25 points since the All-Star break is seventh-best in the NHL.
“We just have a lot of confidence in each other,” Boyd said. “We’ve proven to ourselves that if we play the right way, we can be on any team on any given night. I think that’s what you’re seeing right now.”
Vancouver’s Elias Peterson had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Kuzmenko scored for the second straight game. Thatcher Demko had 24 saves for the Canucks, who went 0 for 5 on the power play to see their five-game winning streak.
Prosvetov accelerated to his first start of the season on short notice, going 39 shots in a win over Nashville on March 9 after learning he had been recalled from the AHL’s Tucson just before noon.
The Russian rookie had little chance to intercept the puck when Coyotes guard Michael Kesslering made a bad pass in his own end midway through the first period. Kuzmenko, the NHL’s most accurate shooter with 27.3%, finished tic-tac-toe to Peterson and Anthony Beauvillier just outside the crease.
The Coyotes gathered some steam after a penalty-filled first period, including Jack Kassian’s game misconduct, and tied it with 30 seconds left on Boyd’s wrist shot from the left circle.
The Canucks committed another penalty early in the third period and Krause cashed in, flipping a sharp-angle shot over Democo’s stick shoulder.
Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes said, “You’re down two going to third or whatever, they score in the first or second inning, you’re not going to come back every time.”
They tried.
Vancouver then turned up the pressure and Peterson beat Prosvetov from the left circle to make it 3–2.
The Canucks pulled Demko for an extra attacker in the final two minutes, but Prosvetov made a late save to preserve the win.
Vancouver faces the Kings in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
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