Coyotes return home to face Avs
The NHL schedule makers were rough on both the Colorado Avalanche and Arizona Coyotes, sending the two Western Conference teams on lengthy East Coast road trips after regular-season openers at home. The Avalanche emerged with two wins from their four-game trip and got a much quicker trip south to the Valley of the Sun with a 3-3 record after losing 1-0 to Winnipeg Friday night in Denver. The Coyotes, after winning their opener, dropped the first five games of their trip back east before salvaging a win at Philadelphia on Thursday night. "Between the goals going in, and fights, and things breaking and challenges, it was crazy," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said after Thursday's win "But we needed a win to end the road trip and we'll take it and go home. "I think we learned a lot on this trip about how we have to play. If the old saying that adversity makes you stronger is true, we gained some strength this trip." Still, the 1-5 start, with two points in six games, was the worst start to a season in Coyotes history. Arizona hopes to take advantage of having the next three games at home inside Gila River Arena, and the homestand starts Saturday night against Colorado. The Avalanche has only scored 16 goals in six games, near the bottom of the league at present, but has only allowed 17, which is in the top five. Goalie Semyon Varlamov has a shutout and a 2.88 goals against average. Colorado's leading goal-scorers are Joe Colborne and Matt Duchene with three each. Veteran winger Jarome Iginla is 16th on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list, but has only one this season. He missed a golden chance Friday night. The Avs will be playing their second set of back-to-back games this season. In 121 games against Arizona in franchise history, they have scored 399 goals to the Coyotes' 401. The Avalanche set new season highs for shots in a game with 37 in Friday's loss, to go with shots in a period (20). The 21 shots allowed was the fewest Colorado has surrendered in a game this season, which made for a frustrating loss to the Jets. "The best way to do it is just to turn the page and get right back at it tomorrow," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog told the team website. "We really have to make sure we get back playing the way we want to on the road and get a big road win tomorrow." The Coyotes have been without top goaltender Mike Smith since the second game of the season. Smith went down with a lower-body injury at Ottawa on Oct. 18 and might only resume skating again next week. In Smith's place, Louis Domingue has a 4.74 goals against average in five games, four of those starts. He got his first win of the season on Thursday with 28 saves. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the Coyotes with five goals, three of those in his last two games. His 81 career goals are fourth-most for a defenseman in franchise history. Forward Brad Richardson is the team leader in points with six and forward Max Domi has five assists to pace the Coyotes in that department. Five different Coyotes, including Ekman-Larsson, scored in the 5-4 win over the Flyers that featured a wild third period. Arizona took a 3-2 lead with Martin Hanzal's goal that happened at the same time as a fight breaking out, and the Coyotes made that stand with a pair of two-goal leads in the final period. The second period has not been kind to Arizona, which has been outscored 10-4 in those 20 minutes this season. |