We just finished Destroying the Wild!
Five for Howling in no way endorses actually destroying forests. Please listen to Smokey and help prevent forest fires...
Great game tonight by the Yotes! We finally broke the streak of futility we had been facing against the Wild. 9 game winning streak for the wild? Over. Backstrom's 8-0? Now 8 and 1. All in all a strong game for our side. and a good follow up to the Dallas game. These are the kinds of games and teams that we'll need to win in order to make the playoffs. 4 point games are nice when you're trying to hunt down the teams in front of you.
The Good:
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Bryzgalov - He's apperently remembered that he's the #1 goalie. It helped that the team played some D in front (and behind him) tonight, but he made some pretty nice saves all on his own. Keep it up!
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All the goals - None of the goals scored by the Coyotes tonight were the garbage type of goals. While those are necessary and sometimes the only way to win, tonight they were either patient and set the goal up perfectly, or were exactly where they were supposed to be in order to get the pass.
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Clearing the Zone - They've been spotty on this several times throughout the season. Tonight they were able to keep the puck out, and when it got in they found a way to get it past the Wild point men and past the blue.
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Toughness - Olli and Jovo especially weren't taking anything off of the Wild tonight. Clutterbuck tried to get into Jovo's head and got "Accidentally run into" by Olli during the conversation. That was good in and of itself, but after that Jovo came out hitting on the next shift and turned the Yotes momentum way up. Sometimes it's better to just not try and get under the other player's skin.
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Penalty Kill - The PK was great against one of the top ranked PP units in the game. Kept them 0 - 5 for the night.
The Bad (Or Could Still Use Work)
- Power Play - While our PK did well, so did the Wild's. They kept us at 0 - 5 tonight too. They did better in the Dallas game, getting two, but they have to do well with the advantage to reach the Post-season.
Tha't all I really have for the bad, they played an all around solid game. If you think of anything else, they played one of thier better all around games of the year tonight. Let's keep it up!