St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington made 18 saves on Monday against Arizona, but this is the one that got away as a shot by Clayton Keller gets past him and into the goal in a 1-0 Coyotes victory. Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

 

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots, Clayton Keller scored and the Arizona Coyotes closed out their seven-game series against the St. Louis Blues with a 1-0 win Monday.

The shifting dynamics of playing hockey in a pandemic led to the Blues and Coyotes playing seven straight games against each other, a first in NHL or NBA regular-season history.

The teams split the first six games, and the Coyotes were at their shutdown best in Game 7.

Keller scored in the second period and Kuemper, making his fifth start in the series, earned his first shutout this season and No. 19 for his career.

Jordan Binnington had 18 saves for the Blues.

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Home ice had not been much of an advantage in this seven-game series. St. Louis won the first game at home, but the Coyotes won the next three and the Blues won the first two in the desert.

Kuemper and Binnington were sharp after getting Saturday’s game off, each making some tough saves in the first period.

Arizona’s Derick Brassard was the closest to breaking through in the first when a wraparound attempt popped up and hit Binnington on the back before bouncing away.

St. Louis ramped up the pressure to start the second period, but the Coyotes scored when Keller beat Binnington on the glove side from the left circle for his fifth of the season.

The Blues kept buzzing in the period and Kuemper made some difficult saves, shutting them down during a 5-on-3 power play. Conor Garland nearly put the Coyotes up 2-0 late in the period after a slick move, but he hit the far post.

Kuemper made a good positional save midway through the third period, sliding over to stop Vince Dunn on an odd-man rush, and another after the Blues pulled Binnington with a minute left.

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STARS-PREDATORS: The Dallas Stars postponed their home game Monday night against the Nashville Predators after a request from city officials not to play because of the impact extreme winter weather had on the area.

With significant power outages in North Texas and throughout the state, the NHL said the decision to postpone the game was made by the teams, on-ice officials and the league upon the advice of Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson.

The NHL didn’t announce the postponement until about a half-hour before the scheduled start of the game. There was power at the American Airlines Center at the time. The game was set to be the fifth of the Stars’ season-long eight-game homestand. No makeup date was announced. The teams were already set to play at the AAC on Tuesday night, and it wasn’t immediately clear if that game could also be impacted.

ISLANDERS 3, SABRES 1: Semyon Varlamov stopped 20 shots and the New York Islanders extended their point streak to seven games with a win over the COVID-19-depleted Buffalo Sabres, who were playing their first game in two weeks on Monday night.

Buffalo still had six regulars sidelined, including three defensemen, in returning after a coronavirus-forced break, which began two days after a 5-3 loss to New Jersey on Jan. 31. Rust and fatigue played a factor in a game in which the Sabres failed to get a shot on goal in the third period (12-0) and were outshot 29-21 overall.

NOTES

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MAPLE LEAFS-HURRICANES TRADE: The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired winger Alex Galchenyuk in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday for forward Egor Korshkov and defenseman David Warsofsky.

Galchenyuk, 27, appeared in eight games with Ottawa this season after signing a one-year contract for just over $1 million in free agency. He scored one goal before he was shipped to Carolina along with center Cedric Paquette for winger Ryan Dzingel on Saturday.

In 557 regular-season NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild and Senators, Galchenyuk has 136 goals and 321 points. The third overall pick by Montreal in the 2012 NHL draft, who has four goals and nine assists in 32 playoff appearances, is joining his sixth organization since the 2018-19 season.

DEVILS: The New Jersey Devils are back at work after 19 players landed on the NHL’s COVID-19 list and forced the postponement of seven games since the end of January.

The Devils, who play the Rangers on Tuesday, practiced Monday for the first time since beating the Sabres in Buffalo on Jan. 31.

Over the next three days after that game, 11 players were added to the NHL’s list of players unavailable because of COVID-19, pushing the Devils’ total to 17. The list reached 19 on Feb. 9.

The number of Devils on the list on Monday was reduced to four: veteran forward Travis Zajac, forward Nikita Gusev, center Nico Hischier, who has yet to play this season, and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov. It was the fewest for the team since Jan. 30.

“It’s kind of unfortunate and it’s kind of crazy how fast it spreads,” forward Miles Wood said Monday. “I think that’s the scariest part. You know, it took down a team within a matter of three days, so it’s very serious. ”


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