COYOTES TROUNCE LIGHTNING, SCORE SEASON-HIGH SEVEN GOALS
The Coyotes poured on the offense, producing handily on the score sheet Saturday night en route to a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Gila River Arena.
Clayton Keller registered his fourth multi-goal performance of the season while Conor Garland set a new single game career-high with four points (2G, 2A) in an explosive outing that saw five different players find the back of the net and 11 record at least one point.
"To me it was just a complete effort, everybody contributed, there was focus," said head coach Rick Tocchet. "I felt that we stuck to the game plan. Our team's frustrating because when we stick to the game plan, we can be a good team."
That game plan was certainly carried out tonight, showing in the form of a convincing defeat of one of the top teams in the NHL.
The Lightning struck for the game's first goal to take a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the contest.
In the late stages of the first period, the Coyotes responded with a pair of goals in a 1:10 stretch to take a sudden 2-1 lead.
Garland walked in from the half wall to tie the game, 1-1, and Keller wired home a long-distance wrist shot to provide the 2-1 advantage.
Carl Soderberg upped the Coyotes' lead to 3-1 with 14:09 remaining in the second period, using his size to score from in front of Tampa Bay's net during a power play.
Tampa Bay netted a pair of goals in a quick 1:26 window midway through the second to tie the game, 3-3.
Less than a minute after the Lightning tied the game, Taylor Hall fought for possession low in the offensive zone, and while down off-balance on one knee, fed Brad Richardson , who cashed in from the slot to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead.
The Coyotes put the clamps on the game in the third period, rattling off an additional three unanswered goals to secure the 7-3 win.
"I liked our third because we kept pressing and we didn't back up, and that's the way you have to win in this league," said Tocchet. "You can't back, back, back up. I thought we were grittier tonight, I thought there was a little more grittiness from guys."
Keller and Garland each potted their second goals of the night to increase the Coyotes' lead to 6-3, while Derek Stepan put the finishing touches on the victory with a two-on-one dart to the top shelf, leading to the night's eventual final score.
DON'T OVERLOOK IT
THE SITUATION: Antti Raanta's first period saves
In a span of 1:05 midway through the first period, Antti Raanta thwarted a pair of high-quality scoring chances to keep the Lightning from building on their early 1-0 lead.
The first save came on Anthony Cirelli following a costly defensive zone turnover, getting a piece of the Tampa Bay forward's shot with his blocker with 8:35 remaining in the opening frame.
The second stop, which included more than one denial, came during a Lightning two-on-one, first showing quick reflexes to pad a deflected puck from a Niklas Hjalmarsson break-up attempt, and immediately after when he got a piece of Steven Stamkos' put-back bid to escape danger.
Lightning give up seven to Arizona Coyotes, lose second straight
Saturday was a night of firsts and worsts for the Lightning as they fell to the Coyotes 7-3.
The seven goals are they most they have given up this season, and the four-goal deficit matches their worst loss of the year (6-2 to the Avalanche on Oct. 19).
“It’s extremely disappointing. We’re a much better team than them,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Tampa Bay (40-17-5) has lost its past two games, its first consecutive regulation losses since Nov. 17 and 19 to Winnipeg and St. Louis.
As if that list wasn’t bad enough, the Lightning’s injury issues also got worse. Cedric Paquette and Mitchell Stephens missed the game with lower-body injuries, and then Erik Cernak was hurt during the game. Coyotes forward Taylor Hall fell on the back of one of the defenseman’s leg, appearing to bend the leg backward.
With Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta on injured reserve, the Lightning are now without three of their top four defensemen.
“We’ve been battling injuries for a long time now, and I think we’ve done a great job overcoming that,” Victor Hedman said. “Bottom line is that we have to play better and not give up this many goals and be better as a team."
Anthony Cirelli opened scoring in the first period 3:53 in, starting a streaky game. Arizona answered with the next three goals, over the end of the first period and the start of the second. The Lightning tied it with goals from Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point in the second period.
The Coyotes scored four unanswered from there.
The teams combined for three goals in 2 minutes, 19 seconds of the second period, a stretch that ended up Arizona up 4-3.
Cameron Gaunce, a defenseman who started the game at forward but finished at the blue line, had two assists for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 34 shots but also gave up all seven goals.
Clayton Keller and Conor Garland each had two goals and an assist for the Coyotes.
Keller’s goal on a breakaway at 11:51 of the third period gave Arizona a 5-3 advantage. Garland added a power-play goal at 14:28, and Derek Stepan scored with 1:14 to play. The goal total was the highest of the season for the Coyotes.
Carl Soderberg and Brad Richardson also scored, and Hall had two assists for Arizona. Antti Raanta made 27 saves.
Seven local wrestlers qualify for state at CIF Masters Meet
From a team perspective, the local schools competing on the final day of the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet wrestling tournament certainly felt that they had met their goal.
Although the area did not produce a Masters champion this year, three teams had wrestlers advance as state qualifiers on Saturday at Sonora High.
Leading the pack again was Fountain Valley High, which will send five to the CIF State wrestling championships from Feb. 27-29 at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
Sophomore Sean Solis (fifth, 113 pounds), freshman TJ McDonnell (fifth, 138), junior Luis Ramirez (eighth, 145), junior Max Wilner (sixth, 160) and senior Matthew Fee (fifth, 220) all moved on to the final stage of the season.
McDonnell, Ramirez and Fee qualified for the state tournament for the first time.
The Barons improved upon last season’s total, when they sent three wrestlers to state – Wilner, Solis and Zach Parker.
“Five is definitely better than three,” said Dennis Piramo, who co-coaches the Barons with Brad Woodbury. “To get one to state in the state of California, I think, is an accomplishment for most teams.
“That’s always good, too, when you bring new people to state every year. It’s a culmination of all the hard work coming together and going to the big show. It means a lot.”
The top nine in each weight class advanced to the state tournament. Fee thought that he might have to face the pressure of a ninth-place match, and he was thankful that he did not.
“My goal this year was to go to state,” Fee said. “I didn’t think I would get this high, so I was thinking that I could squeak by with maybe eighth or ninth, but I took fifth this year, which was surprising to me.”
Individually, some wrestlers may have been disappointed with where they ended up in the placing. Fee expounded on why he thinks some wrestlers tend to dwell on their losses.
“It affects the rankings and stuff, first off, but it’s also kind of a pride thing,” Fee added. “It’s like you can’t be the best if you’ve lost, and everyone wants to be the best.”
Sources:
Comments
Post a Comment