GLENDALE Vegas Golden Knights T-Shirts Womens , Ariz. (AP) — Facing a Carolina Hurricanes team that leads the league in shots per game, the Arizona Coyotes needed every one of goalie Antti Raanta’s career high 48 saves. They also needed overtime after giving up a three-goal lead.Michael Grabner scored 1:17 into the extra period to lift the Coyotes to their fifth straight win, 4-3 over the Hurricanes on Friday night.Grabner credited his goalie after the victory.“He’s been playing great all year. A lot of big saves, and that kept us in the game in the second and third period,” Grabner said. “We have to thank him for that.”Brad Richardson, Brendan Perlini and Nick Cousins scored first-period goals for a 3-0 lead that Arizona gave up in the third period. However, Grabner put in Clayton Keller’s pass for the victory early in overtime.The Coyotes’ current winning streak is their longest since Oct. 26-Nov. 5, 2013.Alex Goligoski assisted on Arizona’s first three goals, a short-handed score, a power-play goal and a 5-on-5 tally before the first period had ended. Goligoski and Richardson have scored at least one point in four straight games.The Hurricanes tied it at 3 with a pair of deflected shots that caromed into the net late in the third period. Andrei Svechnikov scored with 6:18 remaining and Jordan Staal added the equalizer 40 seconds later.“We didn’t have the perfect game but we battled hard and got the two points,” Raanta said.“We looked tired,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought the veterans won us the game tonight.”Petr Mrazek had 21 saves for the Hurricanes Vegas Golden Knights Hoodies Womens , who registered 51 shots, well over their league-leading average of 41.7 per game.Carolina center Sebastian Aho came up short in his quest to set an NHL record for consecutive games with an assist, his streak ending at 12.Former Coyotes player Jordan Martinook scored the Hurricanes’ first goal at 10:34 of the second period.“We can’t give ourselves a hole that we have to dig out of,” Martinook said. “One point’s huge … We get to overtime and we had our chances, and obviously they capitalized on theirs.”Richardson’s short-handed goal, with 6:53 left in first, was his NHL-leading third such goal of the season and fourth overall. Arizona’s seven short-handed goals as a team also leads the league, and the Coyotes became the sixth team in NHL history to score short-handed in four straight games.“We’re not going to keep scoring at this type of pace, it’s insane,” Richardson said. “We’re just happy to kill the plays off and if we happen to score, it’s good.”The Coyotes made it 2-0 with 4:03 left in the opening period while on their second power play of the game. Perlini skated through three defenders and slipped a backhand shot past Mrazek.It took only 55 seconds to make it 3-0, as Nick Cousins beat Mrazek glove side for his first of the season.The NHL’s second-best penalty kill unit by percentage (90.6) going into Friday Vegas Golden Knights Hats Womens , the Coyotes did not allow a goal in six Hurricanes power plays.“It was a pretty good 50-minute effort, unfortunately we know we need to play the whole game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.NOTES: Coyotes D Kevin Connauton was scratched due to illness. Connauton missed his second straight game. … Raanta appeared in his 150th career game. … The crowd roared when Coyotes D Ilya Lyubushkin laid out to block Dougie Hamilton’s shot with his skate in the second period, with Raanta out of the net. … Martinook was in the starting lineup against his former team and acknowledged the crowd when welcomed back by the public address announcer. … Hurricanes C Victor Rask has now missed every game this season with an injured hand.UP NEXTHurricanes: At Vegas on Saturday night.Coyotes: Host Philadelphia on Monday night. Aleksander Barkov is quick to point out the NHL is so popular in Finland that tickets to two games in Helsinki sold out in less than five minutes.“It shows how much they love the game,” the Florida Panthers captain said. “There’s good reason to do that every year.”The NHL is planning just that after Commissioner Gary Bettman announced initial plans for a 2019 season-opener in Prague, two regular-season games in Stockholm and exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland. The Panthers and Winnipeg Jets played the 24th and 25th regular-season games outside North America on Thursday and Friday at a packed Hartwall Arena in the Finnish capital.As the league sows seeds of interest in new markets like China, it is also continuing to cultivate interest in established hockey countries like Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. And there’s a modest proposal for continuing to stoke the interest in the sport in Scandinavia and across Europe.“One thing that I know former players have been talking about is maybe more games earlier on the weekends so they can actually watch,” said Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, who is Swedish. “Prime time here is middle of the night there. To make it more popular in Europe and Sweden, I think more games in the middle of the day on the weekends would be great. That’s how you can get it more popular.”A crowded sports calendar in the U.S. with the NFL and college football going on during the first half of the season makes that a challenge. Not counting the three games this season taking place in Europe, just 127 regular-season NHL games — roughly 10 percent of the full schedule — start early enough in North America that fans in places in Western and Central Europe can watch before a late evening bedtime.Even with games on Thursday Custom Vegas Golden Knights Jerseys , Sunday and Monday nights to fill prime-time spots in the U.S., traditional Sunday afternoon kickoffs have helped the NFL become bigger in Europe. Games at Wembley Stadium in London feature fans in jerseys of just about every team, not just the two playing, and the influence goes beyond England.“In Denmark, the NFL (became) quite popular like 10, 15 years ago because they started games in the afternoon, so people could start watching at dinner time and they could just keep watching a new game,” Capitals center Lars Eller said. “I would welcome more afternoon games.”The “NHL on NBC” games that start at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday largely after the American football season ends fit that bill. And with more teams choosing to skip morning skates altogether, afternoon starts wouldn’t throw off game-day routines to the point that there’s pushback from players.“Whenever that happens, games at 12 or 1 p.m. Eastern time, it’s like 7 o’clock in Finland or (nighttime) in Europe, so people can see www.officialducks.com ,” Barkov said. “Of course there’s a big audience there.”Bettman said he is not sure hockey can grow more in places like Sweden and Finland where there are already strong domestic leagues and a steady flow of talented players reaching the NHL.“What we need to do is continue to work to keep it at the extraordinarily high level that it’s at,” he said.Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly brushed aside the idea of basing an NHL team in Europe, saying it would need to be a group of teams and that no one has come up with a viable plan. They said staging an outdoor game in Europe is a possibility but not something likely to happen soon.More likely is a regular schedule of “Global Series” games across Europe. Since the NHL opened the 1997-98 season in Japan, 24 of 31 teams have played overseas. The Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights and defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals are the only ones left. Probably not for long.“We’re happy to share our game,” Bettman said in Helsinki. “We’d like to continue to encourage the enthusiasm, support and development that hockey gets by bringing the world’s best players and the world’s best league over here.”
