GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Rookie Louis Domingue has enough to prove as he aims to win the Arizona Coyotes backup goalie spot next season. Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche added an additional, and perhaps overwhelming, dimension to that quest.
To put it mildly, Domingue dislikes Colorado coach Patrick Roy, his coach for three seasons with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL. In 2012, after the Remparts blew a 3-0 series lead in the QMJHL playoffs and lost to Halifax, Roy was asked the reason.
"Can I say bad goaltending?" Roy said, laughing.
Domingue was that goaltender, and he didn't take the blame lying down. In a series of tweets (translated from French), Domingue fired back after the Avs clinched the Central Division last season.
"Congratulations to Patrick Roy one more time! What a class act. I'm capable of accepting blame when the hat fits...
"But to denigrate and attack me publicly for three years in addition to intimidating and humiliating (me). I'm ending my silence!
"Patrick Roy intimidated me verbally day after day. Never came to help me. By far and away one of the worst people I've ever met."
Domingue was hoping to exact a measure of revenge Thursday in his third career NHL start, but Colorado scored four goals on 28 shots against him to post a 5-2 win at Gila River Arena. It was the Coyotes' 16th loss in their last 17 games and 14th loss in their past 15 home games.
"For sure it mattered," Domingue said when asked if it mattered that Roy was behind the opposition's bench. "I wish I would have beaten that team. It didn't happen. I don't think I lost the war yet, though."
Domingue didn't help the Coyotes win the battle.
Arizona opened the game with heavy pressure on Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov, and it paid off at the 3:24 mark of the first period when center Sam Gagner threaded a pass through three Colorado players across the slot to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was crashing the net for a backdoor feed. Ekman-Larsson beat Varlamov to the short side for the first of his two goals that gave him the NHL lead for goals by a defensemen with 19.
The lead didn't last long. Avs center Ryan O'Reilly split Arizona defensemen John Moore and Klas Dahlbeck and fired a shot on net from the slot. Domingue appeared to squeeze the puck between his pads, but it somehow trickled into the net to tie the game at 8:15 of the first period.
Colorado took a 2-1 lead 29 seconds later when Arizona defenseman Michael Stone tried to bat a puck out of the air in the neutral zone and missed, allowing Matt Duchene and Jarome Iginla to slip in on a two-on-one. Iginla beat Domingue between the pads for his team-leading 23rd goal of the season.
From that point, the Coyotes were chasing the game.
When asked about his goalie's performance, Coyotes coach Dave Tippett was measured.
"Very average," he said. "We made poor mistakes in front of him. That being said, those are saves you'd like to see made."
Tippett is not one to worry about past relationships when he chooses matchups. He had said all along that he wanted to get Domingue more time; Thursday's game was anything but a concern, given the goalie's relationship with Roy.
"I look at it as a challenge for him," Tippett said. "We want to put him in those positions. If he doesn't want to play those games then I'd be concerned."
With Mike Smith playing well, Domingue knows it will be a while before he gets another chance to erase the bitter taste of Thursday's loss. And now he'll have more of Roy's comments to stew on as well.
"When you're coaching those young guys at the lower level, I think it's your job to prepare them for the next level," Roy said, when asked about Domingue's tweets. "Tonight, I was watching him and he was in the NHL. I must have done a good job somewhere to help him to achieve that goal.
"I believe he should say, 'Thank you.'"
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