Arizona 4 Calgary 1
CALGARY — Brad Richardson scored twice and Antoine Vermette had the game winner Friday night as the Arizona Coyotes beat the Calgary Flames 4-1, snapping a 10-game road winless skid.
Tied 1-1 headed to the third and with Arizona on a power play, Vermette snuck out of the corner and from the side of the net, steered a perfect cross-ice pass from Martin Hanzal into the open side.
Arizona got an insurance goal at 14:18 of the third when Richardson backhanded in Shane Doan’s rebound, then Richardson added an empty netter to finish things off.
Boyd Gordon also scored for Arizona (29-32-7). Doan had two assists to give him 41 points, his 14th season with over 40 points. The reeling Coyotes won for just the second time in their last 11 (2-8-1).
Mikael Backlund scored for Calgary (28-35-5). The Flames are 1-1-1 halfway through a six-game homestand.
Calgary took a 1-0 lead on a short-handed goal 21 seconds into the second period.
Michael Frolik cut in from off the wing on a 2-on-1 and neatly slid a pass across to Backlund and he buried his 15th into the open net.
Backlund has been on a roll lately with 10 goals in his last 18 games.
This comes after he scored just five times in the first 50 games.
Arizona tied it at 15:01 of the second on a short-handed goal of its own. Gordon blocked Dougie Hamilton’s shot leading to a 2-on-1 in which Justin Martinook sent a pass across to Gordon, who batted it in out of the air.
Gordon has two goals in his last three games after 48 games without a goal to begin the season.
Louis Domingue made 24 save to improve to 14-15-5.
Two of his best stops came close together midway through the period second with the game tied 1-1. First he denied Micheal Ferland’s 15-foot snapshot from the slot. Then he turned aside a dangerous chance by Mark Giordano.