EditorsNote: changes to "19-9" in ninth graf
Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves to lead the Arizona Coyotes to a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators in Game 3 of their best-of-five Western Conference qualifying series on Wednesday afternoon in Edmonton.
Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist, and Christian Dvorak, Conor Garland and Carl Soderberg also scored for the Coyotes, who take a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Friday afternoon.
Viktor Arvidsson scored and Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators.
Garland, who led the Coyotes with 22 goals during the regular season, gave Arizona a 2-1 lead at 7:08 of the third period.
Derek Stepan fed Garland coming through the middle, and the winger dragged the puck away from Nashville defenseman Mattias Ekholm before scoring from the slot.
Hall added a power-play goal off a rebound at 15:38, and Soderberg scored into an empty net at 18:06 to make it 4-1.
Despite heavy pressure from the Predators in the opening minutes, Dvorak gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the series at 5:09 of the first period.
Hall retrieved his own missed shot behind the Nashville net and banked a pass off the wall to defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, who sent a slap shot toward the net. Dvorak was positioned in front of Saros and deflected the puck into the goal.
Arizona was outshot 12-1 through the first seven minutes and 19-9 overall in the first period.
The Predators tied the score 1-1 at 7:31 of the second after Nashville center Ryan Johansen poked the puck away from Christian Fischer at the red line, just as Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg came over the wall.
Forsberg took possession of the puck and backhanded a pass to Arvidsson on his right. Arvidsson took one stride and sent a slap shot from the top of the right circle past Kuemper for his second goal of the series.
Kyle Turris appeared to give the Predators a 2-1 lead early in the third period, but an offside review was requested by Arizona, and the goal was disallowed.
--Field Level Media
