Phoenix Coyotes plays host to Colorado Avalanche in the fourth and final meeting – NHL Previews
The Jobing.com Arena in Phoenix will be the venue for the final game of Friday which will be played between Phoenix Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams during the course of the season.
Out of the three games that have already taken place between the two sides, Coyotes have won all three.
The last game between the two teams took place on the 7th of February which saw Coyotes winning the game with a shutout 3-0 performance.
Radim Vrbata scored the winning goal for Coyotes and was the star of the game.
Coyotes, sitting at the fourth spot in the Western Conference, needs to come up with results if it wants to make its way into the playoff cut.
The journey so far hasn’t been easy and it is bound to get difficult even further due to the tight battle that has developed between teams in the running for the final few spots in the cut.
Coyotes needs to win the game against Avalanche as it is stronger of the two teams on paper and has the added advantage of Avalanche being low on confidence level it lost its last game against Nashville Predators, 3-2.
Avalanche gave all it had in the last game but it wasn’t able to find the back of the net.
The offence has been a major problem for Colorado but the defence has haunted it on quite a few occasions as well. There have been several occasions where it could have won the game but with a last minute poor show in defence, it ended up losing.
Avalanche is going through the worst slump in its history that has seen it losing 26 out of the last 30 games which raises questions over its performance next season.
"We've lost two in a row by one goal", centre Matt Duchene said. "We're just making mistakes at the wrong time right now and it's eating us alive".
Avalanche has played 76 games during the course of the season out of which it has won 28 games in regulation time and eight games in overtime to score a total of 64 points.
On the other hand, Coyotes has played 78 games during the season out of which it has won 42 games in regulation time and 11 games in overtime to score 95 points.
Coyotes is struggling in the department of offence which has seen them scoring only eight goals in the last five games but still managing to come up with wins. The reason for this is the fact that it is a very brilliant team in the department of defence.
"It's a very important game. There should be no feeling that we can let this one go by", Coyotes’ coach, Dave Tippett, said. "There's has to be urgent effort all the time".
The game will be very important for Coyotes and with the pressure of winning the game, it will make it all the more exciting as Avalanche will be trying to become the rock that stops Phoenix from winning.
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