The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 on Wednesday night at Mullett Arena.

Having already secured the No. 1 seed in the Pacific division, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was back in the desert to battle his former team.

The first period was a tranquil buildup to what would become a rather chippy game.

Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs didn’t see much action, as the Coyotes ended the first period with only three shots on goal.

Halfway through the game, Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes was able to beat Arizona goaltender Connor Ingram for a 1-0 lead.

As the second was winding down, Jack McBain delivered a huge hit to Canucks forward Elias Pettersson.  Soon after, emotions boiled over when McBain dropped the gloves with J.T Miller for a classic punch off.

Halfway into the third, with Quinn Hughes in the penalty box, Dylan Guenther was able to tie the game with a tic-tac-toe goal from Alex Kerfoot and Clayton Keller.

Keller is on a nine-game point streak, tied with Matias Maccelli for the longest Coyote’s point streak this season.

Guenther spoke about the type of play needed to create goals like the one he scored Wednesday night.

“We have to play faster. We have to create two-on-ones and support each other closer (to the goal). We executed that,” Guenther said.

With two minutes left to play in the third period, former Coyote, Conor Garland was able to give Vancouver the 2-1 lead that they would hold until the final horn.

Ingram’s 31 saves on 33 shots was the reason Wednesday’s game was so close.

Coyotes head coach André Tourigny spoke to reporters after the game,

“The puck has to move tape to tape. We need to challenge ourselves, like we did in the third,” Tourigny said.

The Coyotes (31-39-5) play the last contest of their current seven-game home stand on Friday night against the Las Vegas Golden Knights.