Chicago Blackhawks and Phoenix Coyotes play second game of playoff series – NHL Playoff Preview
The Phoenix Coyotes are playing the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs this season and the credit for this achievement goes to none other than goaltender, Mike Smith, who not only displayed miracles in the regular season to see his team through to the
postseason, but also performed his job in a better way in the first playoff game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
It will be a remarkable achievement for the Coyotes if they clear the quarterfinals, but the task is not going to be easy as Blackhawks are going to come back hard at them in the next game of the seven-game playoff series on Saturday, April 14, 2012, at
Jobing.com Arena, Glendale, Arizona.
Blackhawks are capable of winning the game, but they have to improve slightly on defence, which became the reason for their overtime-loss against Coyotes in the last game.
The last meeting
Jonathan Toews, who had returned from concussion after missing a lot games struck first goal of the game to give Blackhawks’ lead in the first period.
Coyotes, however, scored two goals in the second period thanks to Taylor Pyatt and Antoine Vermette and took the lead, which was neutralised by Blackhawks in the final period when Brent Seabrook scored.
The game was forced to overtime in which Martin Hanzal scored to give Coyotes the victory.
What are they thinking?
Coyotes’ captain, Shane Doan, said of the first victory:
“You're not going to get many opportunities to play overtime in the playoffs. I'm not saying that's the way you want to go into it, but once you're there, you've got to enjoy it and that's what we did."
Toews thought that Blackhawks gave away too many chances and lost the game. He said:
"The big goal for our team that tied it up at the end gave us a chance in overtime, but it came down to we just got stuck in our own zone too many times in that overtime period and gave up too many chances.”
Predictions
Coyotes are doing well on defence and if somehow they could get more aggressive on offence, Blackhawks would stand no chance of winning in front of them.
The sum of goals scored by both teams might stay under six.
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