The Coyotes gained a hard-earned additional point last night against the Edmonton Oilers!
Oilers superstar Connor McDavid opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, skating with amazing speed and puck control past defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson through the right-wing circle, and slid the puck past Darcy Kuemper on the netminder’s right side.
Less than two minutes later, Coyotes’ forward Michael Grabner took control of a puck mishandled by the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl along the left-wing and rifled a shot past Edmonton goalkeeper Mikko Koskinen that went over his shoulder on the short side.
The game ended tied at 2 apiece, with Coyotes forward Carl Soderberg and the Oilers’ Gaetan Haas both lighting the lamp. Coyotes’ Derek Stepan ultimately scored the winning goal at 2:01 of OT on a great feed from Nick Schmaltz.
The Arizona Coyotes were successful against the normally high flying, high scoring Edmonton Oilers because they made a concerted effort to keep the Oilers from entering the ‘Yotes “D” zone through the middle of the ice.
By forcing them to the wings, the Coyotes were able to control and protect the most dangerous scoring areas by having all 5 players work in the “D” zone as a unit. While the forwards effectively backchecked, the defense was able to keep players like Draisaitl, McDavid, and Neal on the perimeter for much of the game.
The Coyotes used a combination of aggressive forechecking in their “O” zone and their speed and quickness in the neutral zone to frustrate the Oilers. Neither team had much time to control the puck, however, as they were pressured constantly by their opponents. The Coyotes used their quick counterattacking pressure to help neutralize the potent scoring threats of the speedy Oilers.
The Oilers had control of the puck for much of the third period, and it felt as though the Coyotes were trying to defend against a lengthy and sustained power play. It felt as if a tying goal was inevitable, and the Oilers indeed scored to tie the game late in the third period, forcing the game into overtime.
Coyotes forward Derek Stepan then scored in OT to give the ‘Yotes a valuable and hard-earned second point.
The Coyotes play again tonight against the Calgary Flames. Let’s go Coyotes!