Coyotes coach Dave Tippett was concerned that a long layoff last week would hurt his team in the Western Conference standings. But the games played out nicely for Phoenix, which entered Saturday’s game in Edmonton still in seventh place.
What the Coyotes need to do now is take advantage of that good fortune, something they weren’t fully able to do against the Oilers despite taking a 2-0 lead in the second period on Saturday.
Phoenix had been 103-4-4 when leading after two periods under coach Dave Tippett, but Edmonton got goals from Jordan Eberle and Teemu Hartikainen to force overtime, then got goals from Eberle and Sam Gagner in a shootout to earn a 3-2 win.
“We just kept giving them the puck back, and when you give them the puck back, they’re going to do good things with it,” Tippett told FOX Sports Arizona’s Todd Walsh. “We had lots of try in our game, but we just kept making mistakes that fed their transition game going the other way. We’ll take the point in the shootout, but that’s a game I’d like to see our team lock down.”
Edmonton was 1-3 on its five-game homestand heading into Saturday, but the struggling Oilers dictated the pace for much of the game. Stellar play from goalie Mike Smith helped the Coyotes salvage a point.
"We just got away from our gameplan. Our plan was to limit turnovers and get pucks deep,” said forward Kyle Chipchura, who had one of the Coyotes’ two goals. “We tried to play a little more of a run-and-gun game.”
The Coyotes will try to rebound Sunday against the Flames, a team they beat 4-0 less than a week ago. The lockout-altered schedule does Phoenix a favor in this game because Calgary has to play rare back-to-back home games following a game against the Wild on Saturday, so they won’t have an energy advantage on the Coyotes.
On the flip side, Calgary is struggling and desperate to build some momentum before the season gets away. Heading into Saturday’s game, the Flames were in 14th place in the 15-team west, one point ahead of the lowly Blue Jackets.
“They’re going to be a pretty desperate team. They’re going to come out hard,” Chipchura told Walsh. “It’s always a tough place to play.”
THREE KEY OPPONENT STATS
73.5: Entering Saturday’s games, Calgary had the league’s second-worst penalty-killing unit with a 73.5 percent success rate. We’d like to think that matters, but Phoenix’s power play has dropped to 17th in the league, converting on just 16.9 percent of its chances. That same power play its just 2 of its last 27 (7.4 percent) over the last six games.
Top-50 no-shows: Entering Saturday’s play, Calgary did not have a single player among the league’s top 50 point producers. Alex Tanguay leads the Flames with 12 points, putting him in a tie for 66th place. Despite that, Calgary is a respectable 14th in goals per game at 2.67. How? A sixth-ranked power play (24.1 percent) and eight players with at least three goals.
.250/.600: In one of those quirky realities of a young season, Calgary has a .250 winning percentage when outshooting opponents but a .600 winning percentage when being outshot. The first number is tied for the worst winning percentage in the NHL this season; the latter is tied for fourth best.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Happy return: Coyotes center Matthew Lombardi returned to the lineup Saturday after a one-month absence due to a shoulder injury. He scored in his first game back to stake the Coyotes to a 2-0 in the second period. “He’s in great shape, been skating well, and he chipped in with a goal tonight, so that was a good start for him,” coach Dave Tippett said.
Home away from home: The Coyotes are 31-13-6 against Canadian teams since the start of the 2009-10 season. Phoenix posted an 11-4-2 record against Canadian opponents last season, including a 5-2-1 mark on the road, and is 10-1-3 on this annual three-game trip (Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver) over the past two seasons. In 2010-11, the Coyotes swept the three-game series twice and collected points in five of six games.
Feistier Flames? After the Kings’ Trevor Lewis flattened Flames goalie Joey MacDonald in Wednesday’s 3-1 Los Angeles win, coach Bob Hartley was so miffed at his team for a lack of response that he recalled 6-foot-4, 225-pound Akim Aliu from the minors to inject some nastiness into the lineup and send a message to his passive club. The Coyotes may bear the brunt of that message Sunday.
INJURY REPORT
For the Coyotes, D David Schlemko (shoulder) is out indefinitely. D Derek Morris (upper body), F Radim Vrbata (lower body) and F Martin Hanzal (upper body) are day-to-day. For the Flames, G Miikka Kiprusoff (MCL sprain) is still at least a week away. F Sven Baertschi (hip) has returned to the lineup.
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