Coyotes Douse Flames 4-3

Coming into tonight, the Phoenix Coyotes were going up against a Calgary Flames team that had won 11 of their last 13 and 7 straight at the Pengrowth Saddledome. Not only that but recent play on the road for Phoenix has not been great as they came into this game with a 7-12-3 record on the road this season. 

Personally, I did not have high expectations for this game. Playing against a hot team on the road and going up against one of the best goaltenders in the league mixed with the fact the Coyotes offense has had rough patches this season made me think the Coyotes were going to lose.

However, they surprised me once again. They started the scoring off with David Hale who shot the puck past a screened Miikka Kiprusoff. It was only David Hale’s second career goal, ending the first period 1-0.

Peter Mueller went down the ice on a 2 on 1 and went pass it across to Enver Lisin. When his pass was blocked he found the puck and put a wrist shot past Kiprusoff making it 2-0. The Flames would respond as Mike Cammalleri got them on the board after a slap shot from the slot. 

Phoenix got lucky when Olli Jokinen threw the puck at the net from an impossible angle. This puck had eyes as it somehow found its way through “Kipper” to get the Coyotes their two goal lead back, ending the second period 3-1.

Calgary would strike first in the third period as Matthew Lombardi’s slap shot from the point found its way through the maze of bodies in front of Ilya Bryzgalov to cut the lead back to one. Mikkel Boedker would come back with his speed a short time later and use his lethal wrist shot to extend the lead back to two.

Calgary wasn’t done yet. Dion Phaneuf threw the puck from the point and cut the score to 4-3 in favor of the Coyotes. Despite many efforts, Ilya Bryzgalov and the Coyotes were able to hang on and snap Calgary’s home winning streak. Bryzgalov stopped 29 of 32 shots while Kiprusoff stopped 22 of 26. 

With this win the Coyotes are tied for 5th place, holding the 5th spot due to the fact they have a game in hand on the Anaheim Ducks. Phoenix plays tomorrow in Edmonton where they will try to continue their good play and close out this season defining road trip with a win against the Oilers.

Posted by The Hockey Writers on Jan 18 2009. Filed under Pacific, Phoenix Coyotes, Western Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.