Arizona Coyotes Sleep In; Fall 2-1 to Anaheim Ducks

The Arizona Coyotes lag for two periods; wake up in time to lose 2-1 to Anaheim Ducks

Well… at least they tried for twenty minutes.

It took the Arizona Coyotes five full periods of play to realize that getting outshot by double will eventually lose you games; after miraculously pulling out a victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night, they went down 2-0 in the second period of Sunday night’s game before finally waking up and turning on the offense.

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The first two periods of Sunday’s game looked lazy — for the Coyotes, at least. The Arizona skaters put up an absurdly low ten shots over forty minutes, relying on faceoff wins and blocked shots to maintain a 0-0 score that stretched out 34 minutes before the Ducks finally slipped two past starter Mike Smith.

While the first goal could be credited against Smith (with staffer Richard Flores dubbing it the ‘fally-down goal’, and holding it up against the butt goal in comparison), the second was just a stroke of bad luck on Arizona’s part. The Ducks took a clean shot from back by the line; when Smith let the puck bounce off and back into play, Patrick Maroon managed to snap it directly past him and neatly to the back of the net.

Both Anaheim goals came within the final stretch of the second period; the Coyotes went from a scoreless game to a 2-0 deficit at the second intermission all between the 14:08 mark and the period buzzer.

The third period saw a completely different Coyotes squad — but by that point, it was too late. Despite outshooting the Ducks 17-5 in the final twenty minutes, the team was only able to slip one past Ducks netminder Frederik Andersen in the third to narrow the lead to 2-1 and avoid yet another shutout.

November 23, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Arizona Coyotes center Tobias Rieder (8) moves in for a shot on goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the third period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The third period looked like actual competitive play; while Tobias Rieder was the only Coyotes skater who showed up to play offense in the first forty minutes of the game, the rest of the team came together in the third to put up a pretty serious fight. While the Ducks had kept the puck down in the Arizona zone for the vast majority of the game early on, things shifted against the home team as the clock wound down. Had the game gone on an additional five or ten minutes, the Ducks might have blown yet another two-goal lead this season.

Rieder may have been the superstar on offense, and the team may have looked lethargic out of the gate — but the rookie wasn’t the only player on Arizona’s roster that got his job done.

Mike Smith has become the talk of the league in the last way he would have ever wanted; with backup Devan Dubnyk holding a 5-0-1 record to start off the season, Smith had struggled to put up even the most average numbers in his first fifteen starts. He had a 4-10-1 record when he skated out at the Honda Center — but more concerning, his .890 SV% didn’t even touch Dubnyk‘s .926, and his 3.30 GAA were causing fans to look at Dubnyk’s 2.34 GAA and wonder who should truly start.

Sunday night, though, Smith finally started to look good again. He only allowed two goals in 30 shots, posting a more than respectable .933 SV% and finally reminding the team why the team inked him a $34 million deal in the first place. Every goalie lets in a shot they shouldn’t — but up to this game, Smith was falling apart with his first missed save of the game. For one of the first times all season, the Arizona Coyotes witnessed Mike Smith coming back from a goal or two against to hold off Anaheim for another full period.

The Coyotes also continued to improve in some of the areas we’ve seen them get a little sloppy in. Joe Vitale was the team’s faceoff leader, earning wins on 67% of his face-offs taken; he also maintained his league-leading streak of blocked shots by forwards, blocking two shots and making four hits over the course of the game. Defenseman Michael Stone also led the team with five blocked shots, and Shane Doan tied Rieder for SOG at four apiece.

Shot attempts for both teams over the course of the game. Just take a look at that comically large gap in the first 2/3 of the chart. Chart via waronice.com

Just… We’ll just leave that there.

Looking Ahead:

• Still no word on the status of Martin Hanzal; we only know it’s a lower body injury. He’s still classified as day-to-day.
• Lucas Lessio still looking for his first goal, though not for lack of trying. The 21-year-old call-up rookie had 2 SOG during his ten minutes of ice time; combined with two strong hits and one blocked shot, Lessio is at least adapting to playing a two-way game.
• The Coyotes move on to play the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday; while the Avalanche started off the season in much worse shape than Arizona, they have crept back and now sit only a point below the Desert Dogs. They’ve got a bad habit of getting grossly outshot as well, though — and the Coyotes clearly proved in the third period that they know how to shoot. Could be a close game, but ultimately, should provide the Coyotes with a nice confidence-boosting two points.

Tweet of the game:

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