Arizona Coyotes Outlast Sharks 3-1 Behind Smith, Overturned Goals

The Arizona Coyotes finally had the breaks go their way on Thursday night in a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. A coaches challenge and NHL review both overturned Sharks goals to allow the Yotes to sneak out with a win.

Sometimes it just goes your way and the Arizona Coyotes were beneficiaries of all the breaks on Thursday night.

The San Jose Sharks had not one, but two goals overturned and saw the Yotes sneak away with 2 points unexpectedly.

Shortly after the Sharks’ first goal was overturned for offsides, Michael Stone rocketed a slapper past Martin Jones to put the Coyotes up 1-0.

In the second period, after having yet another goal overturned for a “distinct kicking motion”, Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks to even things up at 1-1.

The score remained tied heading into the second intermission.

In the third period, the teams traded chances before Shane Doan threw the puck at the crease for a centering pass from down low and it…magically went into the net.

Somehow. Jones and Doan were both equally flabbergasted at what had just transpired.

With the Coyotes up 2-1 with less than two minutes remaining and on the power play thanks to Hertl’s boarding penalty, the Sharks pulled Jones and were promptly punished by Antoine Vermette.

The Arizona Coyotes win 3-1.

Arizona Coyotes Player of the Game

So long as our curly headed backstop continues playing like this, I see no reason to give the Howlin’ Hockey accolades to anyone else. Mike Smith played very well on Thursday night despite technically giving up three goals (with two of them being disallowed).

More from Howlin' Hockey

In the second period in particular, the San Jose Sharks had Smith moving from post-to-post constantly and he stood tall and tracked the puck well. He still looks a little…off physically, but he’s played steady in net and that’s really all the Coyotes need from him.

The View From The 200 Level

This game alternated between being a wildly entertaining affair and perhaps one of the most boring games I’ve watched in person.

I was definitely leaning towards the latter through the first half of the first period until the overturned goal thanks to Dave Tippett’s coaching challenge. Then it got plain weird.

Mike Smith continued the solid play we saw against Edmonton last Saturday.

So long as the big guy continues to make the saves he should make and doesn’t try to be a superhero, the Arizona Coyotes may pull more points out of this final stretch of games than perhaps we all anticipated.