Phoenix Coyotes remain hot with 5-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers
The Phoenix Coyotes continued their winning ways on Tuesday 23 November with a 5-0 win. The shutout victory extended the Coyotes current winning streak to seven games in a row.
The win over Edmonton moved them into first place in the Pacific Division of the National Hockey League’s Western Conference. The Coyotes are now one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings,
who were idle on Tuesday.
The Coyotes wasted no time jumping on top of the faltering Oilers, who sit in last place in the Western Conference with 14 points. Martin Hanzal opened the scoring just 48 seconds into
the game. Hanzal accepted a pass from Ray Whitney and found himself staring at a wide open net as Oiler goaltender Devan Dubnyk had committed to covering Whitney. Hanzal scored easily on the open net and put Phoenix up 1-0.
Phoenix added their second goal of the game at the 2:00 mark of the second period. Wojtek Wolski used some nice puck handling to beat an Edmonton defender and put a wrist shot into the
net.
Lee Stempniak would make Edmonton pay on the power play for the Coyotes next goal. With Andrew Cogliano sitting in the penalty box on a delay of game call he would corral a loose puck
in front of the Oilers goal and bang the puck past Dubnyk for the goal. The Oilers have struggled all year with their penalty kill, ranking last in the NHL in penalty kill percentage at 67.9 percent.
Hanzal would add his second goal of the night when he blasted a slap shot right by Dubnyk at the 13:45 mark of the third period. Phoenix would close out the scoring with 51 seconds remaining
in the game when Stempniak scored his second goal of the game, giving the Coyotes their fifth goal of the evening.
Winning goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov made 23 saves for his first shutout of the season.
Edmonton coach Tom Renney did not hide his disgust when he spoke after the game. "The battle level was nonexistent tonight. The pride in the jersey was not close to where it needed to
be. It was an absolute joke, a travesty,” said Renney.
Winning coach Dave Tippett of the Coyotes voiced almost the exact opposite sentiment, when he said, “We are a team in every sense of the word. Every night, someone different contributes
and we have a team that recognizes how we have to play to be successful.”
For all their success, the Coyotes still struggle to bring crowds into the Jobing.com arena. Attendance for Tuesday’s game was 9,354, which is only 53.5 percent of capacity.
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