Brendan Perlini nets lone goal for Coyotes in 3-1 loss to Kings

The Coyotes rookie camp finished up on Wednesday in the second game of a two-game series against the Los Angeles Kings rookies. The Kings earned a split after their 3-1 victory Wednesday afternoon lobbied back at the 4-1 victory the Coyotes had notched the day prior. at Gila River Arena.

The likes of Domi, Samuelsson, Rieder and Lessio were scratches, so all eyes were on the Coyotes 2014 first round pick Brendan Perlini. Perlini didn’t disappoint, as he was the only goal scorer for the Coyotes. Perlini’s goal tied the score at one late in the first period, after Kings Winger Spencer Watson began the scoring with a beautiful shot from the right circle that got past Coyotes goalie Brendan Burke (more on him in a second) at 12:53 of the first period.

Perlini got off to a slow start in this game, but the first chance he got to score, he managed to find the back of the net. He did seem to get better as the game went along, getting off one more shot, but he was also able to create two great scoring chances thanks to some beautiful passing.

The aforementioned Brendan Burke was the one Coyote that really stood out for me. The Kings dominated puck possession in the first period and were able to pepper Burke with shots all period long, but he was able to turn shots away at will. .

Burke, the son of Coyotes goalie coach Sean Burke, was a sixth round pick in 2013. He will most likely continue his junior career this season with the Portland Winterhawks, where he played in 48 games last season to the tune of a 2.75 GAA and .911 Save Percentage.

Burke made one mistake all game long, and it ended up costing the Coyotes the game. Burke gave up a rebound off his left pad and wasn’t able to get back across to stop Kings Winger Valentin Zykov from taping it home to put the Kings up for good at 3:09 of the second.

For the most part, the rest of the game was ho-hum; the only notable observation to make was that the bad blood from these teams continued as Vincent Arseneau and Yan-Pavel Laplante dropped the gloves and traded blows for close to a minute before the referees stepped in.

The Coyotes had their chances on a Power Play in the third period to tie the game at two, but weren’t able to capitalize. The puck movement was solid and they had the puck in the offensive zone for much of the power play, but were only able to get two shots away; none were dangerous.

Michael Mersch sealed the game late with an empty netter to give the kings the 3-1 win.

A couple other Coyotes that I  liked were Edgars Kulda and Greg Carey; they essentially made up the top line alongside Tyler Gaudet. Kulda and Carey were able to get the puck on their stick in the offensive zone quite a bit, but weren’t quite able to create many scoring chances- something the Coyotes were missing all game long.

With rookie camp in the books and Henrik Samuelsson and Brendan Perlini being the standouts, we are just two days away from veteran camp getting underway. The first preseason game is just three days later, on the 22nd, in a split squad affair against the Kings.