February 2, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA; Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith (41) Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Raffi is back and showed his grit right away. Mike Smith is back and showed fire and aggressiveness. Coyotes take 3 of 4 points in the back to back. A lot of it had to do with stingy defense sticks on the ice, Pack mentality, and another overall team performance. The Yotes have clicked like this a few times this season including a 2-1 loss to Edmonton. This may not of been their most complete game with Dallas on tired legs, but hey we played last night too. When the defense is playing like this, Mike Smith is saving like that, it will be a long night for a lot of teams.

Division wins in regulation are at a premium in this shortened season. A few wins in a row and you can find your self in a playoff spot or even higher. Nick Johnson may start getting fantasy attention if he stays this hot with his 3rd goal on the season mid 2nd period to open up the scoring. Any time the Desert Dawgs get a lead the game changes and they play very stingy defense. Early 3rd period Boedker grabbed a rebound to score a power play goal to give the Yotes a 2-0 lead and it was all Coyotes after that. Instead of playing passive or letting the Stars take the puck to them, they stayed aggressive and kept the pressure on the Stars. Glad to see guys crashing the front of the net.

Mike Smith earned the shutout but gets a lot of help from his friends. Even with only 12,000 fans, home ice seems to fuel Smitty as he earned the first star. 2nd star went to Nick Johnson as he’s starting to become a sturdy force for the Coyotes. With the Super Bowl off the Coyotes return to Jobing.com Monday to take on the Minnesota Wild at 7pm. $35 lower bowl tickets as well as $15 upper tickets available. Student can get best seat available in the house for $25. Come out and join the HUNT!

An oldie but goodie surfaced for yet another team scoring 2 goals to lead the Dallas Stars to a tough fought 4-3 win to open the 2013 season. Radim Vrbata had a performance with 2 goals of his own. Mike Smith was measured and weighed at American Airlines Center. Not what you would expect from Smith who only faced 26 shots but allowed 4 of them past him and almost a 5th. Lehtonen was peppered for 40 shots including 1 on a breakaway but allowed just 3 holding his own late with a ferocious effort by the road team.

Jan 19, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Phoenix Coyotes right wing Shane Doan (19) is checked into the glass during the first period against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

An early power outage turned into a flurry of punches back and forth.  Jagr got the party started late in the opening stanza to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. Back came the pack in the 2nd with 2 goals to take their only lead of the game. POWER PLAY goals. Korpikoski and Vrbata both got the much maligned special teams going for the Coyotes.

Former Coyote Ray Whitney quickly opened the 3rd period with a nice goal that had to be bitter sweet for both sides. Erickson would get the game winner and nothing the Coyotes could do taking a penalty late could change the outcome.

In the end the Coyotes were seeing Stars in a tough opening loss. This season losses feel twice as bad with a shortened season. Game winner for Dallas came in the last part of the 3rd period to send Phoenix home with no points on a night where it seemed they would get both or at least one at the worst.

Not the start wanted but a lot of positives and some negatives surfaced Saturday night. First not to sound redundant but Smith will not allow 4 goals on 26 shots often and if we continue to get off 40 shots we should win a lot of games in the process. Also the power play showing life.

Flying home to face Chicago less than 24 hours is the angry Coyotes who will seek to grab 2 points after seeing it’s Pacific Division banner raised in front of a sellout crowd. Puck drops at 8pm AZ time.