Coyotes give up another five goals in final-seconds loss
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes are next-to-last in the NHL in power-play goals, with 12 in 91 man-advantage opportunities.
Defenseman Justin Faulk, however, is tied for the league lead.
Faulk scored with 17 seconds left to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.
He sent a shot from near the blue line past Coyotes goalie Anders Lindback after Martin Hanzal took a penalty for Arizona with 2:15 left. It was his ninth goal of the season -- all on the power play.
"Anytime you get a power play late in the game . with a chance to go up, you get pretty excited," Faulk said. "I was just trying to find a way to get a shot through the net. We had good traffic, and it just kind of went in there."
Eric Staal, Kris Versteeg, Jay McClement and Ron Hainsey also scored as the Hurricanes got five goals for the first time since Oct. 16 at Detroit. Cam Ward had 19 saves.
Antoine Vermette's power-play goal with 6 1/2 minutes remaining gave the Coyotes a 4-3 lead, but Hainsey tied it 1:57 later.
"You keep doing good things, and you're going to get rewarded in the end," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said.
Stefan Elliott, Tobias Rieder and Nicklas Grossman also scored for Arizona. Lindback finished with 13 saves as Arizona lost its fourth straight.
"It's unacceptable where we are right now and how the game turned out," Lindback said.
Each time Arizona scored, the Hurricanes came back with a goal less than 2 minutes later.
Staal gave Carolina its first lead, 3-2, at 6:27 of the second period with his fifth of the season.
Elliott tied it at 6:24 of the third, back-handing one past Ward for his second goal of the season.
Rieder gave Arizona the lead 49 seconds into the game. Ward drifted to the right to stop Elliott's initial shot, and Rieder knocked the rebound into an open net for his sixth of the season.
Versteeg scored about 90 seconds later to tie it.
Grossmann regained the lead for Arizona, scoring on a wide-angle shot after Ward lost his stick in an exchange in front of the net.
McClement scored 91 seconds later for Carolina. He avoided icing by beating Zbynek Michalek to the puck, then put in his own rebound past Lindback.
NOTES: The Hurricanes announced after the game that forward Brock McGinn was assigned to the team's AHL affiliate in Charlotte. ... The announced attendance was 9,021, the lowest of the season at PNC Arena. ... The Coyotes started Lindback in place of Mike Smith in goal. Smith had been the starter the previous three games, when Arizona allowed 15 goals. ... The Hurricanes and Coyotes meet again in Arizona on Saturday, the third of four consecutive road games for Carolina. ... The Coyotes end a five-game road trip Tuesday at St. Louis. Arizona is ending a stretch of playing 18 of its first 28 games away from home. ... Arizona fell to 0-10-1 when trailing after two periods.
