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The Arizona Coyotes lit the scoreboard up in a big win over Tampa Bay.
You don’t see five goals very often from this incarnation of the Arizona Coyotes.
How sweet it is.
The top line of Tobias Rieder/Martin Hanzal/Radim Vrbata lit up the Lightning, Christian Fischer scored his first NHL goal, and Mike Smith made 44 saves to stave off Tampa Bay in a lopsided third period.
Tobi Rieder got the scoring started early in the first, and he was followed up by Radim Vrbata adding another two minutes later. Both goals were pretty soft, but the Yotes had a rare two goal lead early in the first period.
Cedric Paquette got one back at 18:39 of the first period, and the teams went into intermission with Arizona up 2-1.
The second period was pretty quiet until the Coyotes got a 5-on-3 late in the frame.
On the ensuing advantage, Michael Stone finally hit the net with a shot and scored his first goal of the season to increase the lead to 3-1.
Then it was the rookie’s time to shine.
Alex Burmistrov attempted a pass as he gained the offensive zone. The puck redirected off of Jamie McGinn‘s stick and right to a streaking Christian Fischer, who put the puck past Ben Bishop to give the Arizona Coyotes a 4-1 lead.
Three minutes later, Martin Hanzal extended the lead to 5-1.
The third period was ugly with Mike Smith facing 24 shots and trying to hold down the fort as his team collapsed in front of him. Tampa scored twice but were unable to catch up.
Coyotes win, 5-3.
Arizona Coyotes Player of the Game
You can’t top finally getting the call to play in the National Hockey League, getting to the big show and then scoring a goal on your very first shot.
Christian Fischer has been nothing short of remarkable with the Tucson Roadrunners. Tonight he took his first step towards being a piece of the Coyotes’ future.
The View From The 200 Level
This game was January 2016 the remix.
Outshot? Check. Pinned in your own zone more than you’d like? Check.
Scoring goals off of limited chances? Check.
The Yotes aren’t a team that’s going to dominate possession. That’s not how Dave Tippett has them play and frankly they are just too young and/or too bad in too many spots for that to be a regular outcome.
They can, however, utilize their speed and skill to turn the few chances they get into goals.
Throughout the season they have not been doing that, but recently we’ve begun to see it happen more and more.
Kids like Brendan Perlini and Fischer are pitching in. Radim Vrbata is still good. Hell, even Hanzal is producing some points.
Victories may still be hard to come by, but my word. Isn’t it more fun when the team scores a little?
Arizona takes the ice again on Monday against the Florida Panthers.
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