This afternoon was a must-win game for the Arizona Coyotes against the St. Louis Blues, who they are chasing in the playoff race.

More importantly, it was Leighton Accardo’s Legacy Night, honoring the special young lady who touched many lives in the Arizona hockey community.

Blues score first Sammy Blais from David Perron and Colton Paryako at 1:23 of the first from the slot 1-0 Blues.

Blues score on the power play Tyler Bozak at 8:14 of the first makes it 2-0 Blues.

Coyotes score on a slick play by Nick Schmaltz, Alex Goligoski scores at 1:41 of the second to make it 2-1 Blues.

Coyotes score on the powerplay, Clayton Keller from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Christian Dvorak scores at 10:34 of the second to make it 2-2.

Coyotes score on a crisp point shot from Jakob Chychrun, which was tipped in by Michael Bunting at 4:00 of the third period making it 3-2 Coyotes.

Play of the Game

The Coyotes added Leighton Accardo to their Ring of Honor, where they have previous Coyotes numbers honored before the game started. Accardo passed away at the age of 9 from Stage 4 cancer on November 24, 2020.

She was the Coyotes 2019-2020 Hockey Fights Cancer ambassador, skating with the team at warmups and taking a ceremonial puck drop.

By adding Accardo to the Ring of Honor, she will be the first person, not a player, general manager, staff or broadcaster to be honored this way.

The Coyotes produced a video that played during pregame commemorating her, that can be seen here.

Player of the Game

Leighton Accardo is my honorary player of the game. Her adage of ‘Skate Hard, Have Fun’ means a lot to the Coyotes and should be what each person does each game, for her.

The Coyotes wore a jersey designed specifically for this evenings for warmups.

Three Howls

The third howl is Darcy Kuemper, who came back from injury tonight.

The second howl is Michael Bunting for scoring the game winning goal.

The first howl is for Leighton Accardo. She will always be one of my first howl for this game.