Keller’s hat trick propels Coyotes past Golden Knights

Clayton Keller had his second hat trick of the season and and Karel Vejmelka had 35 saves as the Arizona Coyotes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 on Sunday night, their second victory in the last 13 games.

WINNING IN THE DESERT NIGHTS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XW87sqDP0f

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) January 23, 2023

Dylan Guenther also scored for the Coyotes, who had been shut out in their last two games.

“It’s been tough last couple of games or so,” Keller said, has a team-high 18 goals but had only one in his previous 10 games.”It was nice to see some goals go in, too. Long season. You are going to go through tough times.

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“Sometimes you don’t get the bounces you maybe deserve, and I think that’s something that I’ve learned playing in this league. Just not getting frustrated and sticking with it.”

Phil Kessel scored and Logan Thompson had 19 saves for Vegas, who has lost four of five and has 12 goals in that span.

The Coyotes are 9-7-2 at home and have beaten Atlantic Division leader and Pacific Division leader Vegas in 5,000-seat Mullett Arena.

“We’re trending in the right direction,” Arizona coach André Tourigny said. “It’s a journey. You need to build your culture, your program, every day.

“The players know where we are going. That doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating. It is. We want it to be frustrating in the sense of we want our guys to be competitors and wanting to win every night. We need to build our foundation brick by brick.”