Tempeh, Ariz. – The Red Wings needed a win on Tuesday and the Arizona Coyotes didn’t.
Playing in the undersized Mullett Arena, which had a lot of Wings fans and still had many empty seats, the Wings dropped a 4-3 decision in a penalty shootout.
Arizona won the shootout 2-0, with Nick Schmaltz and Nick Bjogstad scoring.
“It’s tough, it takes a second to suck it in,” said defender Jake Wollman. “We have to finish those matches.”
The Wings (18-17-8) are unbeaten in their last three games and have won twice in their last eight.
“It hurts,” said coach Derek Lalonde after seeing his team lose a 3-1 lead in the third period. “The effort was there. We tired in the third and maybe we could have managed a 3-1 lead a little better. But (b) our efforts, three goals on the way, should be enough to win.”
Chest Points: Coyote 4, Red Wings 3 (su)
Goaltender Magnus Helberg, who started as relief starter Phil Hosseau, blocked 20 shots. Helbergg made a huge glove on Clayton Keller into the slot in overtime, extending the game into a shootout, and he also made timely saves with the Coyotes around him in the final minute of regulation time.
But the two goals allowed in the third period were the ones Helberg wanted to get back.
“The second and third goals can’t get in the way of an NHL goalkeeper, he’ll be the first to admit it,” Lalonde said. “However, when we ran out of gas, he made some saves at the end of the third period that gave us a point and was excellent going into overtime.
“It’s a bit frustrating. I felt maybe three goals should have been enough (to win).”
Hilberg was frustrated that he couldn’t pull off a victory in the third game for his teammates.
“We played well for us to get the win,” said Helberg. “I’m really disappointed that they came back and won. As I feel now, that was a tough couple of goals. I have to watch the video and see what I can do better, but when we’re up 3-1 in the third period, you want to put them away and win in regulations.
“I’m really disappointed. I wanted to help the team get two points.”
The Wings outscored Arizona, 40-24.
more:Wing notes: slow beginnings hinder progress; Hassou’s workload monitoring
The Coyotes scored on two goals separated by 1:10 (Travis Boyd, Dylan Guenther) tying the game 3-3 going into the third period. This, after the Wings scored two goals, Pius Sutter and David Peron, just 58 seconds apart to briefly take a 3-1 lead early in the period.
Sutter converted a sweet play from Robby Fabbri along the boards, touchdown a 2-on-1 rush and beat Connor Ingram for his sixth touchdown.
Capping off a powerful conversion from Andrew Cobb’s line, Perron scored his 14th goal, beating Ingram on a rebound to make it 3-1.
But the wolves answered right back.
Boyd scored his fifth at 6:43, with a shot from the hole that eluded Hilberg. Guenther then scored his fifth goal, at 7:53, returning the rebound to the yawning net.
“Wrist shots go into the net, or hit the goal post and end up in the net, but we could have done a better job of not putting the puck in those areas,” said Lalonde.
Dylan Larkin (power play) and Nick Begstad of AZ exchanged goals in the second period.
Larkin scored his 15th, going up Moritz Seider’s shot off the top of the hole, at 8:34.
But Bagstad responded quickly, beating Hilberg from a tight angle to score Bajstad’s 11th goal, at 11:09.
The Wings wrap up their three-game road trip Thursday in Vegas (10 p.m./BSD/97.1). A victory should assuage the disappointment of losing a spot in the standings in this match.
“That was tough,” Larkin said. “We came back, we went up, we should have won that game 5-1. We outplayed them. Just mental errors and lapses that fell into our own net.”
Twitter: @tkulfan