Arizona Coyotes Shutout Nashville Predators 4-0
The Arizona Coyotes began a season long seven game homestand with a matchup against the Nashville Predators. The Coyotes had won their previous two games and were looking to cement their hold on second place in the Pacific Division.
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The Arizona Coyotes are on a roll. The new look offense of the Predators with Ryan Johansen anchoring the top line were a mere speed bump on the way to two more points.
After an early penalty shot was awarded to Anthony Duclair and subsequently stopped by Carter Hutton, things looked a little bleak.
The Coyotes dominated the early part of the first period, but were outshot 15-10 overall and saw their control slip away as the period wore on.
Early in the second period, a bad penalty taken by Barret Jackman put the Yotes on the power play. Shane Doan and Antoine Vermette worked together to get the puck past Hutton, and Vermette’s 200th career goal gave the Arizona Coyotes a 1-0 lead.
Scoring the goal seemed to invigorate the team, and they held the Nashville Predators to just five shots in the second frame to take their 1-0 lead into the third period.
55 seconds into the third period, the Coyotes found themselves the recipients of some puck luck.
Tobias Rieder‘s pass to Connor Murphy was broken up by a good stick from Ryan Ellis, but the puck slid directly to Martin Hanzal. Hanzal’s shot was redirected by Rieder into the net. Coyotes led 2-0.
Withstanding a long Predators push in their own zone, including Peter Laviolette pulling Carter Hutton fairly early, the Yotes got on the board again when Murphy and Vermette combined to clear the puck to Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
OEL hit Tobias Rieder in stride in the neutral zone and Rieder skated it all the way into the empty net. 3-0 Coyotes.
Even with an empty-netter in hand to ice the game, the Coyotes were not done scoring.
With Hutton back in his net, Anthony Duclair poke checked Eric Nystrom and was off to the races with Roman Josi on his hip. Josi lost his footing and fell, leaving Duclair to go in all alone on Hutton. He made the Preds backup look silly.
The Arizona Coyotes win 4-0. Louis Domingue gets his second shutout of the season!
Player Performance
Martin Hanzal will never score a goal again. After having several overturned early in the season for being played with a high stick (aka sorry Hanzal you’re too tall), he’s now had three goals taken away from him by the official scorers due to redirects and the like in the past two games. Poor Marty.
Tobias Rieder had a three point night, including his first two goals since December 17th. The kid has 10 goals on the season at the halfway mark. Might he sniff 20?
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Congrats on your 200th career goal, Antoine Vermette!
Connor Murphy was on the ice for all three of the Coyotes’ even strength goals.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson has 10 points in his last 11 games, and the Coyotes continue to see good things happen with #23 on the ice. His relatively new partnership with Connor Murphy seems to be working out nicely for both parties.
Anthony Duclair was stopped by Carter Hutton on an early penalty shot. With 14 seconds left in the game, he made good on that mishap with one of the filthiest goals the Arizona Coyotes have scored all year. More aggression for The Duke can only lead to good things.
Arizona Coyotes Player of the Game
Why has Louis Domingue been so good?
Is it the fact that he remains so calm and in control in net? Perhaps it’s the fact that his name begins with “Domi” and we all know that’s a good line of stock. It could just be he’s a hot goalie and we’re enjoy the fruits of Louis being in the zone.
Whatever the reason, Louis is now 6-0-2 in his eight starts and has a .936 save percentage. Even if his save percentage drops to a much more reasonable .915, he’d still be big upgrade on what the Coyotes had in net prior to Mike Smith going out with injury.
Chalk up another shutout for Domingue. Bravo, kid.
The View From The 200 Level
You could not have asked for a better start to the Arizona Coyotes’ seven game homestand.
With Rieder back on the goal-scoring ledger, along with a suddenly revitalized Anthony Duclair, the only missing piece in the offense of late has been Max Domi. One has to think he’ll make an impact at some point over the remainder of the next two weeks.
When this team is receiving competent goaltending, the way they can frustrate teams with their structure becomes more apparent. The Nashville Predators heavily out-attempted the Coyotes, but the majority of their efforts were from the periphery and did not find the net.
When they did find the net, Domingue was there to answer the bell.
The Yotes have opened up a four point lead on the 3rd place Vancouver Canucks in the Pacific Division. And the Anaheim Ducks are just a point back from Vancouver, finally arriving at the table halfway through the season.
The Arizona Coyotes next take the ice on Tuesday against the Connor McDavid-less Edmonton Oilers.