Getting Back on Track

The Coyotes got back to their winning ways on Thursday after a four day break.

But first, lets rewind the clock to last Saturday night when the Coyotes played the Calgary Flames. It was an embarrassing scene as the Coyotes barely had any offense and clearly no defense.  It seemed like the only thing they did right was to have the right amount of guys on the ice at all times. They lost 4-1.

Thursday night against the Penguins deemed to be a different story.  They came out very aggressive all night and shut down any attack that the Penguins put at them.

In the first period, there was no scoring but the Penguins were outplayed in every sense.  They had a whopping 2 shots on goal compared to 12 by the Coyotes.

In the second period the Coyotes scored first on a goal by Olli Jokinen and the Penguins quickly answered on a powerplay goal (PPG) by Miroslav Satan.  The Coyotes later got a PPG of their own when Shane Doan scored to make it 2-1 Coyotes at the end of two periods.

In the third period, the Penguins would learn their demise as the Coyotes scored again when Kevin Porter got his first goal of the season.  Down 3-1, the Penguins pulled goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to get an extra attacker with about a minute left.  That proved to be the perfect opportunity for the Coyotes’ Shane Doan to seal the deal with his second goal of the night.  The empty-netter made it 4-1, Coyotes.

The Coyotes’ Ilja Bryzgalov had 27 saves on 28 shots and Fleury stopped 25 shots and had 29 saves.  The biggest play of the game happened in the third period when the Coyotes killed a 5 on 3 power play by the Penguins.

The Coyotes play the Minnesota Wild on Saturday who just experienced their first regular season loss a couple nights ago.  The Wild have always been a tough opponent for the Coyotes.  The Coyotes have only beaten them once in their last eight meetings against the Wild.  If the Coyotes can continue the aggressive play they played with Thursday night, it could be a good game.  Any other way, and it will be a tally in the loss column.

Photo: Yahoo! Sports