GameTrax: Stats and more
GLENDALE -- Tuesday's game against Vancouver was a minefield of distractions for the Coyotes.
Commissioner Gary Bettman was in town to lob the latest verbal grenade at the Goldwater Institute.
Phoenix entered the game minus four key players.
It lost another in the second period when defenseman Rostislav Klesla took a puck right between the eyes.
And the Canucks entered the game with an NHL-leading 93 points and a possible glimpse of the Coyotes' future: throngs of screaming Canadian fans in the stands.
"We're impressed," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "You come on the road and it's like you're at home."
The big picture says the Coyotes lost, 4-3, when defenseman Dan Hamhuis beat goalie Ilya Bryzgalov from the left circle at 2:13 of overtime.
The fine print says Phoenix earned a valuable point it had no right earning against a team that is racing away to the President's Trophy.
"It's disappointing when you lose," forward Eric Belanger said. "But there's a lot of positive things to get out of this game."
Most importantly, Phoenix eked within a point of Chicago for fourth place in the Western Conference standings after Blackhawk killer Tomas Vokoun ended Chicago's eight-game winning streak with a 37-save performance.
That position will change daily, evenly hourly in the ever-tighter West, so buckle up Coyotes fans. It's going to be a wild ride to the finish. Eight teams are now bunched within five points of each other in the fourth through 11th spots in the conference with less than a month to play.
Phoenix may have blown a chance to separate itself when it lost five straight following an eight-game winning streak last month, but that's par for the course this year in the streak-happy West.
"It seems like every game you play you can move up three spots or fall three spots," captain Shane Doan said. "One day you're in the playoffs, the next day you're out."
The Coyotes appeared to be on their way to earning four points in back-to-back games against the West top two teams
