Montoya Kills Avalanche with Shutout 3-0

Congratulations Al Montoya! Your first start and you record your first NHL shutout. How about that?! Not bad for a guy that was on the outs in the Rangers organization. To be fair, he had been shakey down in San Antoinio, but turned it on as of late, which got him the chance to play up here. I only got a chance to catch the end of the game, but heard most of it on the radio. Between that and the highlights, it didn't seem like the Avs challenged him all that much, but when they did he was more than up to it, and if he was having any butterflies, they went away pretty quickly. He did well enough that he should be getting another start tonight too. Good job!

As for the game, as it was a shutout you could probably tell that it was pretty much the Coyotes' show last night. The Avs tried to make a charge in the second and really upped their shot count, but nothing got through. They also added to their injury list when Ryan Smyth went out with a hand injury. It looks like he'll be out for the remainder. Not that that's too many games, but Who's left for them to call up? That's 12 guys I think that are now out for them. That's rediculous. I think they may want to look into getting a new conditioning coach and trainer because that's just terrible.

The Coyotes first goal was scored by Mikkel Boedker who's been quiet in last part of this season, so it's good to see him net one. It wasn't the pretty goal like he uaually creates, but just hard work and staying with the play in front that got the job done. Nobody was able to keep control of it, or really find it and he was able to skate to the side and past Raycroft. Shane Doan got his 30th of the Year on a MONSTER! (TM Pierre McGuire) blast from just inside the blue line which clanged off the inside of the post and in. Zbynek Michalek closed it out with an empty netter that was really just him flipping it down the ice to make the change, but it still counted.

Another Coyote that had a pretty good game was David Hale. We usually don't have a lot to say about him, but he was laying the hits all night and even tried to scrap with Ian Laperriere. It's good to see that he's trying hard and making people notice for next year. Hey he's already got 3 goals this year. His previous high was 0. So there's some improvement.