Phoenix Coyotes come from behind to win 5-4 in SO over Los Angeles Kings - NHL Update
An action packed game saw the Phoenix Coyotes mount a brilliant comeback to win 5-4 in a shootout over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012, at the Jobing.com Arena.
The Coyotes in a show of great calmness and confidence mounted a brilliant second period comeback after going down by three goals in the first period.
The win keeps Phoenix in seventh with 69 points and three points above eighth placed Los Angeles Kings.
Los Angeles though will not be too disappointed with their single point. The Kings remain in eighth spot and moved a point ahead of ninth placed Calgary Flames who also lost on Tuesday.
The Coyotes amazing comeback had the capacity crowd in the Arena on their feet and coach Dave Tippett believes that the win holds some important lessons for his surging team.
"It continues to build a belief system that you can win. You can win when things are going well and you can win when there's some adversity in front of you. There's some good learning experiences for us there."
This was Phoenix’s third straight win in a row.
Los Angeles took the lead early in the first period. The Kings offence looked finally to have ended their scoring drought and just six minutes into the game scored through Drew Doughty.
Another six minutes later Los Angeles made it 2-0 as Andrei Loktionov combined well with Alec Martinez.
Dustin Brown made it 3-0 at 14:44 and it seemed that Los Angeles will rout their opponents.
However, these Coyotes are tough and they never lost hope in the game.
Radim Vrbata’s power play goal 50-seconds into the second period boosted Phoenix’s confidence and it seemed that the Coyotes gained a new spring in their step pressurising the Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick.
The Coyotes outshot Kings 14-10 in the second period and brought the lead down to 3-2 at 5:26 as Shane Doan took advantage of another power play.
Los Angeles though would get their opportunity on the man-advantage and at 11:51 Justin Williams made it 4-2.
Shane Doan though once again brought the Kings lead down to a single goal with a powerful shot at 17:07 to make it 4-3.
Vrbata’s second goal on the power play late in the third period equalised the game and overtime was on the cards.
Both teams failed to score in OT and the game had to be settled by a shootout.
Mikkel Boedker beat Quick in the shootout to win the game and gain two points for Phoenix.
The Coyotes will now face Calgary Flames on Thursday, while Los Angeles will look to end their three game losing run against Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
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