Arizona Coyotes Early Season Affiliate Report
By Chris Reid
Arizona Coyotes affiliates, the Springfield Falcons and the Rapid City Rush are both off to streaky starts this year.
With the parent Arizona Coyotes hockey club off to a 6-5-1 record this season their farm teams are also off to similar starts.
The Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League are the epitome of a streaky team. After stumbling and bumbling out of the gate, the Falcons have managed to rip off three wins in a row. Their season record presently stands at 3-4-1. Losses to Hershey, Bridgeport, Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton began the 2015 season. Springfield was outshot and outscored badly in this stretch of defeats.
This clip from YouTube depicts those struggles pretty succinctly:
Finally, the Falcons earned a point in an overtime loss to the Penguins. That “success” helped to start their win streak. Springfield knocked off Providence and Rochester and got revenge on the Bridgeport Sound-Tigers as well.
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Lack of execution coupled with poor quality goaltending play laid the foundation to the shaky start. However, it now seems the Falcons have managed to right the ship. Center Dustin Jeffrey was named the most recent AHL Player of the Week when he erupted for 2G, 5A and a +4 rating during the Falcons 3 game streak. Goalie Louie Domingue had a poor start and now has improved his play:
His consistency needs to improve, as well as his focus for Domingue, as he once was considered to be a prospective goalie of the future for the Arizona Coyotes. At this point, however, he needs to make marked improvement as the clock is ticking on him.
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The Rapid City Rush of the East Coast Hockey League dropped the first two games of the season to the Colorado Eagles. They then split two with the Idaho Steelheads. The Rush then redeemed themselves against Colorado, by winning two out of three. That was followed by another split — this time with Alaska. As it stands right now, the Rush are in 4th place in their division with a 4-3 record.
The Rush are led in scoring by F Winston Day Chief at 4 G, 3 A, +1 after 7 games. In goal for the Rush, is long-time net-minder Danny Battochio. The Canadian is averaging — for him, below average numbers in GAA and save percentage. Hopefully work with Arizona Coyotes Goaltending Development Coach Corey Schwab will raise these numbers, and help the Rush add more wins to the ledger.
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That’s about it for the affiliate report. Howlin Hockey will do our best to keep you informed of the young prospects in the Arizona Coyotes development system. After all, they are the future of this hockey team.