Sports360AZ
There’s something about the Detroit Red Wings that doesn’t sit well with the Phoenix Coyotes.
Last week in Detroit, Mich., the Red Wings won 3-2 in a shootout.
This week in Glendale, Ariz., the results were exactly the same: Detroit wins their third game of the season against the Coyotes in 3-2 shootout fashion.
Red Wings right winger Todd Bertuzzi scored both in regulation, and in the shootout to secure the win for the Red Wings.
“It was our game,” Bertuzzi said. “The ice was horrible, the puck was bouncing and obviously with our excellent four-on-three kill at the end, the guys did a good job.”
With the win, Detroit continues it’s torrid January pace. They are now 7-2 this month, and they improve their record to 31-15-1, tops in the league.
The Coyotes continue to struggle in the New Year with the loss. They are now 2-4-3 since the calendars turned to 2012.
They got one point by virtue of making it to the shootout, but for head coach Dave Tippett, one point is clearly not as good as two.
“You’re never pleased with only one point,” Tippett said. “You go into it looking for two points.”
“We had a group that really poured a lot out there tonight to try to get the points and it’s too bad we couldn’t get two,” Tippett said.
“You got to find ways to win games, no matter how you do it,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said.
Coyotes’ left-winger Raffi Torres got the scoring going early in the first period, as he beat goalie Jimmy Howard on his glove side to give Phoenix the early 1-0 lead.
Red Wings’ defenseman Ian White would tie the score with an even-handed goal in the second period.
Both teams would trade goals late in the second period to make it 2-2.
Neither team scored in the final period, which sent the game to an overtime session.
The Coyotes got quite a few chances to put the game away in overtime, but couldn’t get the puck past Howard, which meant the skills shootout, which Bertuzzi shined in.
There were pluses and minuses to go along with the loss for Phoenix: the plus was their penalty kill, which was excellent. Detroit was 0-5 on the power play.
The minus were the penalties. Phoenix had seven penalties for 14 total minutes of penalty time.
To the Coyotes’ credit, one of the penalties should’ve not been called. Center Daymond Langkow was hit in the face with a puck and couldn’t get off the ice, prompting center Martin Hanzal to jump on the ice in his place.
“That’s when I think there should be some common sense by the referee that the player is incapacitated,” Tippett said.
“It’s not as if you’ve got two guys playing here,” he said.
The six-game homestand continues for the Coyotes on Saturday night, as they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Jobing.com Arena.
The puck drops at 8 p.m.
