Oilers Break Losing Streak Against Coyotes
The Phoenix Coyotes lost Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 and the Oilers losing streak stops at four games.
The Coyotes’ effort was there on the ice. The fired 39 shots at Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson and he put on a terrific performance. In the first period, the Coyotes went on a power play and they fired everything they could at him but Roloson stood tall, even without his stick. If the Coyotes could have scored there, the momentum could have stayed with the team longer.
Six minutes into the game, Raffi Torres scored the first goal and gave the Oilers their first lead of the night. Ales Hemsky was credited with an assist, and for both players, it wouldn’t be their last goals and assists of the night.
It looked though that the Coyotes would bounce back, especially after Peter Mueller scores his first goal of his NHL career on a power play chance in the second period.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vXB7GIrx8]
Mueller answers the call after being a healthy scratch on Saturday night against the Wild and his rest away from the game paid off for him. He had increased energy and played aggressively with the puck. Wayne Gretzky had him on the ice in important situations at the end of the game. His TOI was 10:30, but the bulk of his shifts came in the third period.
Hopefully, now he will have confidence in his game.
The Oilers would answer later in the second on a goal by Kyle Brodziak, but Mike Zigomanis would answer in the third period with a beautiful goal, lifting the puck over Rolson to tie the game at two apiece.
However, Raffi Torres and Ales Hemsky punish the Coyotes once more on a fluke goal where the initial shot rebounded right to Torres’ stick and the puck slipped by Alex Auld.
Auld’s first goal that he allowed was the only soft one. The other two he didn’t have a chance to stop the shot from going past him. The Coyotes made two critical errors that led to the scoring chances and the Oilers capitalized.
At first glance, the Coyotes looked like they would hand the Oilers their fifth defeat in a row, but the outstanding goaltending performance by Roloson would not allow that to happen. Roloson, Torres, and Hemsky were the Oilers’ best players.
Unfortunately for the Coyotes, they come up against an important game against the Detroit Red Wings Saturday night. Their current record is 2-4 and a loss against the Red Wings would put them three games below .500. The team is well aware of that statistic, and after the Red Wings, they face the Anaheim Ducks in an important divisional match up.
The positive aspects to Thursday night’s game was the effort of the Coyotes. They skated hard and did everything possible to win but once again they were up against a goaltender who put on a stellar performance. They competed to win and kept their mistakes to a minimum.
However, there are areas to improve, notably the veterans from the top line really need to begin scoring. After a strong first game, Keith Ballard has looked really tentative on the ice and taking some unique chances in moving the puck to his forwards. Ballard is not known as a passive player and he needs to return to his forceful game he exhibited against the St. Louis Blues.
Yotes played so well but still lost the game. That is a tough one to swallow.
They had to use advantage of those scoring chanses! Roli played great game but still. For example Freddy should have scored on the break away…
Nice to see Mueller finally get the 1st NHL goal. Btw thanks for the videos again!