Coyotes, fighting mad lose 7th straight and fall to the Wild late 4-3 in OT
By Troy Baker
When it rains it pours. The Phoenix Coyotes are drowning in a pool of ineptitude.
Mar 27, 2013; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Phoenix Coyotes forward Kyle Chipchura (24) and Minnesota Wild forward Zenon Konopka (28) mix it up in the second period at the Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports
Just when I think they are actually reading my articles…Hitting more, going to the front of the net, and pinching in a defensemen in key moments. Enter Rob Klinkhammer who did all of the above on one shift to get Phoenix on the score sheet. Early on it was a solid opening period but again the Coyotes could not bury the puck. There isn’t too much more to say at this point. Time for talk and idle chit chat is over. Time to talk with bodies and skates and sticks. Parise had a nice goal but the killer was a flat out give away by Jason LaBarbera that Cullen batted out of the air and put in a wide open net. Keith Yandle tossed a loose puck toward the net and once again someone finally in the middle Boyd Gordon tip it in. Michael Stone added the 3rd and apparent game winner in the same manner flipping a loose puck at the net and it found it’s way in.
After hard work and a tough fore check it appeared Phoenix was on their way to ending the losing streak, but then it happened. After the Wild pulled Backstrom a seeing eye wrister found the upper right of the net and here we go again the Coyotes could almost sense doom. In the extra session Antoinne Vermette took one of those bad penalties that seemed to plague us late in every game and although it was just killed off it was followed by a hard working goal in front of the net. Here we go again. Seven straight losses. Bottom of the Pacific and almost last in the whole conference.
No rest for the bewildered ‘Yotes as they travel back to back against Nashville. My heart hopes for magic but my mind says the end is near. My only hope is ownership gets figured out and we keep hockey in the desert. Maybe then we can start focusing on building something in the Valley of the Sun.