RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Jeff Skinner scored his second goal with 1:58 left, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-5 on Thursday night despite giving up a weird goal when the puck stuck in goalie Cam Ward’s skate.
Skinner added an assist, and Valentin Zykov scored two goals, the second tying it at 5 with 10:14 remaining. Phil Di Giuseppe had a goal and two assists, and Jaccob Slavin had three assists.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored, and Ward made 28 saves for Carolina. The Hurricanes had lost six of eight.
Alex Goligoski scored twice, including arguably the most bizarre goal of the season when Ward unknowingly skated across the red line with the puck lodged in his right skate.
Rookie Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist, Josh Archibald and Nick Cousins also scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots for Arizona. Eliminated from the playoff race last week, the Coyotes won at Buffalo on Wednesday night for their second straight victory.
Skinner’s winner came when he backhanded his blocked shot past Kuemper after some slick passing from Di Giuseppe and Slavin. Ward preserved the lead with a slick glove save off Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s blast with about 40 seconds remaining.
Goligoski’s second goal came on a power play with 10.3 seconds left in the second period and put the Coyotes up 5-4.
His first goal was the one everyone will be talking about .
Ward skated behind the net to play the puck midway through the first, and it somehow wedged inside his right skate. The play was not blown dead, so Ward returned to the net and as he dug into his crease, the puck crossed the goal line. After a brief video review, the goal was awarded to Goligoski.
For the Hurricanes, that was a fitting application of Murphy’s Law to a once-promising season that has gone awry.
Since a victory over New Jersey on March 2, Carolina had gone into a tailspin – a slump marked by consecutive third-period collapses – to all but eliminate itself from the playoff chase. The Hurricanes entered nine points behind the Devils for the East’s final playoff spot.
NOTES: Keller has points in seven straight games and is one goal shy of the team rookie record of 22 set by Peter Mueller in 2007-08. … Teravainen and C Sebastian Aho also each have points in seven straight. … Arizona D Niklas Hjalmarsson went down with an apparent leg injury late in the second. … The Hurricanes have given up at least three goals in six straight games.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: Continue their six-game road swing at Florida on Saturday night.
Hurricanes: At Ottawa on Saturday night.
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