Arizona Coyotes goaltender Louis Domingue led his team to victory after nine straight losses.
The Arizona Coyotes regained that winning feeling heading into their mandatory bye week.
Louis Domingue was a big part of why.
The Coyotes’ backup netminder made 27 saves including some big ones in the overtime and shootout to will Arizona to it’s first victory since December 15th, 2016.
Of course, Louis is Louis. He couldn’t help but make it harder on himself.
In the second period, Domingue grabbed the puck behind his own net and fired it up the middle of the ice to clear it.
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Bad idea.
The puck went under Laurent Dauphin’s stick and slid right to Johnny Boychuk for a clear shot on Domingue as he scrambled to get back into position. Alan Quine redirected it past the 24-year-old goaltender to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead.
Louis has a bit of a bad habit of being his own worst enemy with plays like the Quine goal over the past two seasons. The good news is, this time he buckled down even harder after the miscue.
It looked like that lead would hold for the duration until a beautiful redirection by Brendan Perlini tied it up.
Once overtime (and subsequently, the shootout) arrived, Domingue took matters into his own hands.
Thanks to his late game heroics, the Arizona Coyotes are back in the win column and Louis Domingue is the proud recipient of the team’s player of the game belt.
Go inside the locker room to find out who tonight's game belt went to. ⬇️ https://t.co/d2hTHwQ706
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) January 8, 2017
He certainly deserved it for his effort. It was Domingue’s first win since November 8th against Colorado.
After the game, Domingue told reporters, “I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It was a game I needed to prove something to everybody in the room, including myself. It feels good.”
He did that.
It’s also hard to believe that the man delivering the belt was trade acquisition Peter Holland.
Holland joined the Coyotes’ roster and made an immediate impact, propelling the team to wins in his first two games for Arizona, including a shootout victory over his former team in Toronto.
Unfortunately, both Holland and Arizona have fared poorly since that night, and Holland had to hold onto the belt.
Next: Brendan Perlini, Christian Dvorak Providing Yotes Signs of Hope
Now it’s got a shiny new home in Domingue’s locker stall.
Hopefully #35 will be handing it out as early as Friday night when the Arizona Coyotes resume play against the Winnipeg Jets.