Arizona Coyotes: Studs and Duds Versus Tampa, Colorado, and St. Louis

Arizona vs. St. Louis

Studs

Alex Kerfoot

Kerfoot’s strong play continued here. Forty seconds into this one, on an early strong forecheck that the Blues didn’t seem ready for, he feeds it to Carcone for the first of the Coyotes’ four goals. Later he feeds it to Schmaltz with a sweet pass on the power play to net the second goal. Anytime he was on the ice, he was making plays. He wrapped up his excellent game with a near-rink-long empty netter to finally put it out of reach of the Blues late in the third period.

Connor Ingram

Make it four starts in a row for Ingram, and coming off a tough matchup with Colorado, he responded resoundingly. He made several great saves in this one, and after the dominant first period by the Coyotes, he kept the door shut for most of the second and third periods when they began to coast a bit. His play has been strong enough to warrant going to him as the primary goalie for the foreseeable future.

Neutral zone play

The Coyotes’ neutral zone has been really good the past few games, and against the Blues that continued. Their neutral zone play really cuts down on their opponent’s speed and limits their transition game, which is where the Coyotes can struggle to match up. It’s a big part of their recent success, as well as a big part of their identity. The more physical they are and the more pressure they apply, the better.

Duds

The referees

There were multiple questionable calls in this one, and thankfully the Coyotes’ played well enough to not let it affect the outcome. With the Blues on the power play, Pavel Buchnevich hits Josh Brown into Ingram on a dangerous play and Brown gets after him. However, the refs give offsetting penalties rather than taking the dangerous hit into account for Brown’s reaction. Another example from late in the third, they missed an obvious interference on the Coyotes after the Blues pulled the goalie. At that point, the Blues were still in the game and it could have had a major impact had St. Louis capitalized.

Sean Durzi

Durzi took a dumb penalty in the second period while on the bench. He was called for interference when Schenn was hit into the bench area by O’Brien. He held Schenn down by his head for several seconds to keep him from returning to the ice. A second or two would he would have most likely gotten away with, but this was obvious. Up 3-0 at the time, it wasn’t dire but you could tell André Tourigny was not happy.

Arizona’s killer instinct

Arizona dominated the first period and got a big lead early. After going up 3-0, they began coasting a bit in the second period and then got sloppy late in the third period, turning it over and giving up a goal that gave the Blues some life. Then the Blues had a several-minute man advantage when they pulled the goalie. Instead of finishing it, it felt like the Coyotes were just hanging on until Kerfoot scored the empty netter with 1:15 left.