Dein erstes Forum » Travel to Vegas on Monday before hosting

GLENDALE Youth Brandon Sutter Jersey , Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Coyotes lost four of their first five games, three by shutout.Another lost season in the desert apparently on the way.The thing about those early games, though, is they were close, unlike the start of last season. The Coyotes played well, just couldn’t seem to catch the right break or get pucks to find the net.Once the pucks started going in, the Coyotes couldn’t seem to miss.Behind a scoring flurry that would have been unthinkable on previous teams, Arizona is off to its best 11-game start (6-5-0) since 2013-14.“I really like all our games; we played well in all of them, we competed well,” Coyotes forward Derek Stepan said. “Yeah, we made some mistakes that cost us some goals early on, but we’re learning quickly.”It’s been a long-arching curve.The Coyotes have struggled since reaching the 2012 Western Conference finals, seeming to be in perpetual rebuilding mode. Arizona got last season off to a miserable start, needing 12 games to win for the first time to fall out of playoff contention before the season’s first month was over.The Coyotes played better the last two months of the 2017-18 season and hoped it would carry over into this season.It did not, at least early.Arizona opened the season with a pair of shutout losses and had four goals its first five games — three of those in its lone win.Then something clicked.The Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on the road on Oct. 18 and, after a 5-3 loss at Winnipeg Brendan Leipsic Jersey Kids , have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams.With Tuesday night’s 5-1 home win over Ottawa, the Coyotes have outscored opponents 20-4 during a four-game winning streak. Arizona has 27 goals over a six-game span, a first for the franchise since 2006-07.“The guys were sticking with it and practicing like the goals would come,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “You have to have that mentality in this league. We’ve got good mojo right now and we don’t want to wreck it.”Arizona has been among the league leaders in shots per game since the start of the season and the shooting percentage has dramatically increased since the minuscule 1.6 to start the season.The Coyotes seemed to get some bad breaks on shots early in the season, hitting posts and crossbars, having pucks squirt out of their reach in the offensive zone. They also didn’t seem to create their own luck by getting traffic in front of the crease and putting shots in spots where goalies could make easy saves.The breaks have been coming the past few games, such as Stepan’s blue line, short-handed goal that skittered off the ice and through Ottawa goalie Mike Condon’s pads .Arizona also has been creating some of that luck with hard, smart play, getting traffic in front of opposing goaltenders and more precise shooting.“You earn your bounces,” Stepan said. “We had some bounces going the other way early on in the year, now they’re starting to go our way and in a few weeks, they’re going to come back the other way. Good teams find ways to win any given night regardless of the bounces.”With the scoring boost, the Coyotes have continued to play stingy defense, the one area that helped them get through the difficult times in the past.Arizona has limited good chances against and its goalies, Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper http://www.officialcanucks.com/authentic-adidas-brock-boeser-jersey , have been superb, combining to give the Coyotes the NHL’s best goals-against average at 1.91. Raanta, healthy after an injury-filled first season in the desert, is fourth in the NHL with a 1.99 goals-against average.The Coyotes also have the NHL’s second-best penalty kill at 90.6 percent and have a league-high six short-handed goals to three power-play goals allowed. Stepan’s goal against Ottawa gave Arizona short-handed goals in three straight games for the second time in franchise history (1985). The Coyotes are 11th NHL team since 1933 to have five short-handed goals in three games.“When we’re sticking with our game plan and everybody is dialed in, we’re a really good team,” Raanta said. “As a goalie, it’s a dream to play behind that team.”Especially when they’re scoring goals, as they are now. DENVER (AP) The game had a postseason intensity. So Gabriel Landeskog of course brought out his best shot – even if he might’ve had his eyes closed when he took it.A capacity crowd certainly let him know the result.The Colorado captain beat Marc Andre-Fleury with a nifty move in the shootout and the Avalanche kept expansion Vegas from clinching a playoff spot on their home ice by beating the Golden Knights 2-1 on Saturday.”It was a lot of fun and the crowd was incredible,” said Landeskog, who explained that on his winning tally he came in from an angle on Fleury, cut toward the middle and shot the puck with his eyes shut. ”(Fleury) made some nice saves on me during the game. It was nice to get that one back.”Semyon Varlamov stopped all three shots in the shootout. He finished with 39 saves, including seven in overtime.This after allowing five goals and being pulled in a 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings two days ago.Short memories this time of year.”I knew we were going to come and play hard and respond,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”Doesn’t always guarantee you the victory – there’s another good team that’s trying to win the hockey game, too. It was a close one right down to the shootout.”Carl Soderberg was back on the ice after missing two games with an illness and contributed with a first-period goal. Colorado remains in the thick of the playoff picture as the team picked up its 26th home win, which is tied for the third-most in Avalanche history.The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights are on the doorstep of earning their playoff spot. They were kept in this game thanks to the play of Fleury, who was back in the net after sustaining an undisclosed injury Tuesday. Fleury made 29 saves.”We had moments when I thought the puck would go in Christopher Tanev Jersey , but somehow he stopped the shots. He’d make that big save,” Varlamov said of Fleury. ”That’s why he’s different than anybody else. In a key moment, he can make that save.”Jonathan Marchessault tied the game early in the third, moments after Fleury made an incredible save with his right leg.It would be a familiar trend.The play of the game may have been this: Blake Comeau had a breakaway in the third as he tried to corral the puck near center ice. Fleury came all the way out to disrupt Comeau, who side-stepped Fleury’s stick only to tumble to the ice and not be able to knock it into the wide-open net.In overtime, Fleury also stopped Erik Johnson on a breakaway.”He was awesome,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. ”He made some great saves tonight. That wasn’t a 1-1 hockey game. That was like a 5-4 hockey game. I thought both goalies were really good.”Fleury recently had some fun with reporters who asked about what happened Tuesday when he left the game for an undisclosed reason (he also didn’t play Thursday). Fleury joked it was a chance to catch up on his favorite soap opera, ”Days of our Lives.”All kidding aside, he said he was ”back to normal. It felt good to be back with the boys again.”The two teams turn around and play in Vegas on Monday.”The atmosphere was good. It was such a close game, on both sides,” Fleury said. ”It was exciting to be part of, but disappointing to come out on the losing side.”Varlamov was in net for a 20th straight game as backup Jonathan Bernier was sidelined by a cut that became infected. Bernier’s also missed time this season with a concussion.Soderberg gave Colorado an early lead by lifting a shot over the shoulder of Fleury for a power-play goal midway through the opening period.”It was a good hockey game,” Bednar said. ”That was a fun hockey game.”NOTES: Team USA goaltender Nicole Hensley was honored before the game and given an Avalanche sweater. She helped the U.S. bring home the gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games. … D Mark Alt made his Avalanche debut after being claimed off waivers from Philadelphia on Feb. 26. … RW Sven Andrighetto and C Colin Wilson are day-to-day with lower-body injuries.UP NEXTGolden Knights: Begin a four-game homestand Monday against Colorado.Avalanche: Travel to Vegas on Monday before hosting two straight games at home.—