Smith makes smashing return
Shutout keeps playoff hopes alive
The most important facelift to the Coyotes roster wasn’t going to come at the NHL trade deadline.
It was always going to happen when the team was completely healthy again.
They still aren’t at full strength, but they welcomed back No. 1 goalie Mike Smith on Saturday and he reaffirmed the impact he will have in preserving the Coyotes playoff hopes by dealing a 24-save shutout in a 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche in front of 16,648 at Jobing.com Arena.
Smith’s triumphant return was his fifth shutout of the season (tying the league high) and 24th of his career, and it was matched by a bountiful offensive performance that had four players record two-point nights for
the Coyotes’ first three-game winning streak of the season.
“It’s going to be huge getting everybody back in the lineup, and we need everybody,” captain Shane Doan said. “That’s kind of what we’ve talked as a group all along is, what makes us good is we count on so many guys.”
That catapulted the Coyotes over Columbus and Edmonton, and they own the ninth spot in the Western Conference — only two points behind eighth-seeded St. Louis and three from seventh-place Detroit.
They polished off a perfect homestand with two wins over quality opponents in the Los Angeles Kings and Red Wings before beating the league’s worst road team in the Avalanche. The Coyotes will pack up their three consecutive wins — from three different goalies — and a six-game point streak for a three-game tour of western Canada starting Monday.
“We knew this homestand we had to have six points here,” coach Dave Tippett said. “We accomplished that. What we’ve done is hopefully build some momentum going on a tough road trip.”
Wing Mikkel Boedker made it 1-0 1:46 into the game when his shot off the wing fooled Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, who the Coyotes tested with 28 total shots.
Meanwhile, Smith struggled to find action around his crease. The Avalanche didn’t send a dribbler of a shot his way until 5:49 into the first.
“We were kind of all over them in the first and kept that going throughout the game,” Smith said. Wing Mikkel Boedker capitalized on a tired Avalanche squad on the back end of a back-to-back by scoring 1:46 into the first period. 4 Players who had two-point efforts. The Coyotes looked like the better team, and that’s the way it should be when they play the last-place team in the conference — at least if they want to continue to be in the hunt for a playoff spot. Smith’s workload wasn’t as taxing as it’s likely to be on this upcoming road trip with stops in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, but just his presence seems to inject confidence into the players in front of him.
The Coyotes had a dominating second period with two goals from the Doan-Martin Hanzal-Radim Vrbata line. An outlet pass from Smith during an Avalanche change sent Hanzal and Doan in alone on the power play, and Hanzal finished off a give-and-go at 3:06.
They went up 3-0 when center Boyd Gordon collected a pass off the end-boards and beat Varlamov short side.
Vrbata earned his second assist when he pulled Varlamov out of position before passing to Doan, who banked the puck into an empty net at 14:37.
Smith, who was out since March 21 after getting charged behind the net by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alex Edler, wasn’t timid. He ventured out to chase pucks plenty of times and played with his usual flair — at one point grabbing Cody McLeod’s stick after a late jab and flinging it into the corner.
“That’s my game, and if I don’t play like that, then I don’t play up to my capabilities,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to go into tonight and be tentative. I wanted to get back in and do what I do, and when I play my best, I do that.”