Darcy Kuemper steals Game 3 as Arizona Coyotes beat Avalanche

Arizona Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper put his team on his back and stole a win in Game 3 against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Arizona Coyotes avoided a 3-0 series deficit, despite the Colorado Avalanche throwing everything they had at them. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was a huge reason why, as he stopped all but two of the 51 shots he saw.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche turned to Pavel Francouz in goal in Game 3, as it was the second game of a back-to-back situation. The Coyotes wasted no time welcoming him to the series. For the second game in a row, it appeared that coach Rick Tocchet had his team understand the need for a good showing following a loss, and this time his Coyotes delivered.

Forward Derek Stepan opened the scoring on a nice setup by Clayton Keller from below the goal line. The score came after Arizona got out to a 9-5 shot advantage early in the period. It was the type of lead that makes the Coyotes dangerous, as it provided Kuemper with a lead to work with.

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The 1-0 advantage also represented the first lead of the series for the Coyotes, which had the potential to give the club some confidence. The Avalanche, though, turned up their play as the period progressed, and led in shots at the end of the first 20-12, despite trailing on the scoreboard. 20 saves by Kuemper was an Arizona postseason record for saves in a period.

He continued to be the focal point of the game as it moved along, facing the majority of the shots in the second period. It wasn’t until Andre Burakovsky, the hero in Game 2, got one through on the power play to tie the game at one.

Regardless, this was the second time in three games so far in this series that Kuemper has held the Avalanche off of the scoreboard for over half of the game, and it was the only thing that kept Arizona competitive in either of those games. After Stepan’s goal on the Coyotes’ ninth shot of the game, his team proceeded to get outshot 31-8 from that point until the end of the second period.

Thanks to some great goaltending, the Coyotes were able to hang around, and that eighth shot since the Yotes’ first goal turned into a second goal, courtesy of Brad Richardson. That 2-1 lead would be the margin heading into the third period.

The final 20 minutes featured more of the same: Darcy Kuemper robbing the Avalanche. The team in front of him registered only six shots on goal in the period, while the Avalanche put 15 pucks on the Arizona net. Most of the period was played in the Coyotes’ end, but Taylor Hall gave his team an insurance goal via an empty net tally.

It was a good thing that Hall added that goal, as Mikko Rantanen found a way to sling one past Kuemper to make the score 3-2 with just under a minute remaining. The Coyotes, however, were able to weather one more surge, add a second empty net goal from Lawson Crouse, and survive for the win.

Kuemper’s save total of 49 tied a career high, as he faced more than twice as many shots as Francouz did at the other end of the ice. Arizona was also able to help him out, though the shot chart doesn’t suggest that was the case. The team blocked 27 shots, led by Stepan and Jason Demers, who had four each.

For Colorado, there were 11 players that registered three or more shots on goal. Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon had seven shots apiece. The Avs were all over the Coyotes for long stretches of time, but they just couldn’t find a way to consistently get pucks to the back of the net. In fact, it took deflections off of Coyotes defenders to even get the two goals they had past Kuemper.

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This is the type of game Arizona needs from their netminder, though a little more support offensively would be ideal, as they were outshot 51-23. For the Avalanche, the late goal could help generate some momentum, and sticking to their game will be crucial, despite being bested by Kuemper in this game.

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