Phoenix Coyotes'' Mike Smith blocks 26 to shutout former team Dallas Stars 3-0 -NHL Update
Phoenix continued to climb up in the Western Conference as their goalie, Mike Smith, blocked all 26 shots on his net as the Coyotes denied his former team, the Dallas Stars, by shutting them out, 3-0, Saturday night, November 26, 2011, at the Jobing.com
Arena in Glendale, Arizona, United States.
Smith is certainly one of the best goalies in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) so far, but giving credit to the defenders and other players in front of him, he termed them as a necessity to his shutout.
"The guys in front of me were great," said Smith. "They cleared the puck all night and let me see the puck. They had my back and that's what it takes to win hockey games."
Mikkel Boedker gave Phoenix their first go ahead goal of the night with less than five minutes to play in the opening 20 minute period in which not a single penalty was awarded to any player on either side of the ice.
Ray Whitney followed that with his seventh of the regular season at the 6:02 mark of the second period while the Phoenix Coyotes also managed to block the Stars from scoring when Keith Yandle was booked in the final moments for tripping.
Taylor Pyatt added the final goal of the night to keep Phoenix consistent in their scoring efforts at the midway mark of the third and final period of regulation, while also keeping the Stars out of their defensive end.
"It's a little bit of a groin pull there," said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. "We'll see how it is. It's one of those things you don't see the extent until you see it the next day."
After a disappointing 5-0 loss against the Vancouver Canucks, Phoenix knew they needed to comeback and that is exactly what they did on Saturday against the Stars.
"After the way we played against Vancouver, we needed to come back," Daymond Langkow said. "Once you're in a slide it can snowball, so we needed to stop it and we rebounded with a strong game."
Phoenix has the next two games on the road starting off against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday while Dallas plays the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
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