GLENDALE Authentic Max Domi Jersey , Ariz. (AP) Darcy Kuemper bounced back nicely for the Arizona Coyotes.Just 2 1/2 weeks after being acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings – and one night after being worked over in a 5-2 loss at Colorado – the goalkeeper earned his 11th career shutout with a 1-0 victory over Vancouver on Sunday night, his and Arizona’s second win over the Canucks in four days.Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored on a power play for the only goal Kuemper needed. Ekman-Larsson is now two shy of 100 career goals.Kuemper, in his fourth straight start for the injured Antti Ranta since being acquired Feb. 21 from Los Angeles, stopped 27 shots.”It’s nice to get these consecutive starts like this and just kind of get in the rhythm out there,” he said. ”Every start I feel more and more comfortable with the team and how we play. Tonight was just a gutsy effort from everyone.”Kuemper’s previous shutout was Feb. 3 for the Kings against the Coyotes.”It was a very solid game. He looked big to me tonight,” Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said. ”A very solid play. It looked like when they shot nothing was going to go in.”Kuemper had 24 saves in the Coyotes’ 2-1 win at Vancouver on Wednesday in his Arizona debut.Although long out of the playoff picture, Arizona rebounded from a 5-2 loss at Colorado the previous night and improved to 10-3-2 in its last games. Vancouver lost its third straight and is 4-10-3 in its last 17.”It’s frustrating,” Canucks forward Bo Horvat said. ”At the same time we need to take the positives out of this one. I thought we did battle hard until the end. I think we came on a little stronger there in the second half, we just have to capitalize on our chances instead.”After mostly uneventful play through one period and most of the second, the Coyotes finally broke through on a power play.With Vancouver defenseman Derrick Pouliot in the penalty box for high-sticking, Ekman-Larsson got loose and sent a sharp shot from outside the circle, just to the right of goalie Jacob Markstrom and Arizona led 1-0 with 4:53 left in the second. It was Ekman-Larsson’s 10th goal of the season. Derek Stepan and Clayton Keller got assists.Kuemper shut down any attempts to tie it after that with 13 third-period saves.Ekman-Larsson said Kuemper has been an easy fit.”It makes it easy when he’s a great guy and you want to battle for him,” Ekman-Larsson said. ”I think everybody’s doing a really good job, too. We’re playing better as a team, too. It makes it easy on everyone.”With the victory http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-sven-andrighetto-jersey , Arizona pulled within one game of Buffalo, and two of Ottawa, to escape the bottom of the NHL standings. The Coyotes are four points behind Vancouver in last place in the Pacific Division.The Canucks know they need to step up the offensive pressure early in games.”It’s easier said than done,” coach Travis Green said. ”It’s easy to say from the outside let’s go out and get 10 to 15 shots. We gave up only six (in the first period). I thought we passed up a few chances, a few shots early in the game, but I’d like to see us put the puck in the net. You got to execute, you got to make passes to get scoring chances. That was a tight game both ways.”NOTES: Ranta missed his fourth straight game with a lower body injury. … Coyotes opened a five-game homestand. … Canucks are 6-13-1 against the Pacific Division. … Ekman-Larsson has scored at least 10 goals in five consecutive seasons. He has a point in five of his last six games. … Coyotes lead season series 2-1.UP NEXTCanucks: At Los Angeles on Monday night.Coyotes: Host Los Angeles on Tuesday night. Freed from the weight of the world of being Stanley Cup favorites, the Washington Capitals are playing like a team eager to prove something.Prove doubters wrong, prove their championship window hasn’t closed and, most notably, prove they can get over the playoff hump that has vexed them over the past decade. Led by top NHL goal scorer Alex Ovechkin, the Capitals go into their first-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets having won 12 of their final 15 games and feeling confident about this spring despite a series of early playoff exits.”I hope best hockey is going to be in the playoffs,” Ovechkin said Saturday night. ”I think the balance on our team right now is pretty good and pretty high. That’s very good thing to go into the playoffs because in playoffs you never know what’s going to happen. Maybe one shift can change the whole series. I think we’re ready for it.”Few expected the Capitals to win the Metropolitan Division again after losing Justin Williams, Marcus Johansson, Nate Schmidt http://www.officialcanadiensprostore.com/authentic-adidas-phillip-danault-jersey , Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk and Daniel Winnik from last year’s team that won the Presidents’ Trophy for the second consecutive season. Coach Barry Trotz and players miss no opportunity to bring up all the preseason predictions about them being a playoff bubble team.Of course, when they sat at 11-10-1 just before Thanksgiving, those lower expectations looked accurate. General manager Brian MacLellan insists he was never worried – and his team’s 38-16-6 record the rest of the way was the fourth best in the NHL in that time behind only Boston, Nashville and Winnipeg.The Capitals don’t have the playoff buzz of the Bruins, Predators, Jets, Tampa Bay Lightning or the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, but they have as good a chance as anyone of reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in the Ovechkin era.”We have a chance to go the distance,” MacLellan said. ”I don’t know that we’re as deep or as experienced as we were last year, but I think the whole league is a little less of that. There’s probably a couple teams that are a little deeper that might have a chance, theoretically, of going farther, but I think we’re in the mix with the high-end teams.”Everyone thought the Capitals were the highest of high-end teams in 2016 and 2017, and they lost to the eventual Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round each time. Williams has implied that favorite status didn’t suit the Capitals well Womens Craig Smith Jersey , and Trotz said ”the crown is quite heavy” for a team expected to win.It showed.”I think there was some external pressure that creeped in the room,” veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik said. ”I think maybe as a veteran group, we probably don’t want to admit that it affected us. I think at times it definitely did.”Finishing in first place puts some pressure on the Capitals, but it’s nothing like in years past. More than anything, there’s urgency to win with Ovechkin 32 and having three years remaining on his contract.”We all know what we’re playing for is to win a championship and I’m hoping we do it this year,” owner Ted Leonsis said. ”I’m hoping we do it within his contract time.”Columbus is a tough first-round matchup for the Capitals, but their play down the stretch makes a long playoff run possible if they get strong goaltending from Braden Holtby or Philipp Grubauer. From the net out, Washington looks like a contender thanks to the trade-deadline additions of defensemen Michal Kempny and Jakub Jerabek and the play of centers Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom.”We’re playing the right way a lot of the time,” Holtby said. ”It’s more where you’re at as a team and I think we’re continuing to build and push forward in the right direction. We have a lot of guys contributing right now. It’s a good sign.”Washington’s road to the elusive Cup could go through Pittsburgh and then Boston, Tampa Bay or Toronto. Perhaps the expectations being on those teams instead of the Capitals isn’t such a bad thing.”I think it’s a good thing because I think last two years we were on top of the league and we win Presidents’ Trophy,” Ovechkin said. ”Everybody thought we were going to be unstoppable in playoffs and we didn’t. … We’re going to do our thing and we’re going to have success.”—