NHL: Sieg in St. Louis!

26.11.2006 von Coyote.

Na also, da hat sich aber jemand am Riemen gerissen: in St. Louis kamen die Coyoten dank Toren von Owen Nolan und Yanic Perreault zu einem 2:1 Sieg.

Die Coyoten spielten überraschend ohne Ladislav Nagy, der von Coach Gretzky auf die Bank verbannt wurde. Gretzky will damit ein Zeichen setzen für das Team - auf gut Deutsch: sie sollen sich auf dem Eis den Ar… aufreissen. Näheres im Artikel von AZCentral in der “Presseschau”.

ESPN: Boxscore Recap

Das schreibt AZCentral.com:

Joseph stellar in ‘Yotes win

Associated Press
Nov. 25, 2006 08:51 PM

ST. LOUIS - Yankic Perreault scored his seventh goal in eight games to lead Phoenix to a 2-1 victory over St. Louis on Saturday night.

It was his first goal since scoring six times in five consecutive games before going without a goal in his past two contests. Perreault broke a 1-1 tie after he buried the only goal in the second period with under two minutes remaining, collecting a long rebound off the pads of Blues goaltender Curtis Sanford and blasting it into the right side of the net.

Owen Nolan also scored for the Coyotes. Dan Hinote scored his third goal of the year for St. Louis.

Sanford failed to smother Ed Jovanovski’s shot from the left side and the Blues failed to mark Perreault, who has 10 points this season. The loss kept St. Louis from achieving its first three-game winning streak since February of last season. It earned consecutive shootout victories at Columbus and Detroit before taking on Phoenix.

Curtis Joseph handled a 5-on-3 opportunity for St. Louis about midway through the third period and stopped 25 shots in his sixth victory of the year.

Both teams scored in the first period, but failed to mount any serious threats in the third. The Blues tied the score at 1 on Hinote’s shot with 4:46 left in the first period and less than four minutes after Nolan’s score gave Phoenix a 1-0 lead.

Notes: The Blues drew their second-largest crowd of the season with 14,440 fans, short of the 17,213 at their home opener. …Nolan earned his first goal of the year and first since the 2003-04 season in St. Louis on Oct. 17. …The Blues honored C Doug Weight before the game, their first in St. Louis since Weight became the 210th player to skate in 1,000th games Nov. 16 in Edmonton. The Blues presented a crystal plaque, an engraved silver stick and a watch to Weight who was joined by his wife and three children.

Quelle: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/1125coyotes-ON.html 

Coyotes rebound behind Joseph

Jim Gintonio
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 26, 2006 12:00 AM

ST. LOUIS - Cujo was playing like . . . well, a mad dog.

Coyotes goalie Curtis Joseph put on quite a show for his old team, acting like a kid on the ice as he helped trigger a much-needed 2-1 victory over St. Louis on Saturday night.

Joseph, 39, showed his former teammates he still has it. He dived and slid, making 25 saves off his gloves, stick, skates and almost every body part.

“You feel young at times,” Joseph said. “My job description is to make big saves and fire up the team.”

His inspired effort mirrored that of his teammates, who were desperate to put a miserable game from Friday night behind them.

The Coyotes came out of the chute inspired, skating hard and not backing down, enabling them to secure their second road win of the year, both at St. Louis’ Scottrade Center.

Owen Nolan scored the first Phoenix goal at the 11:35 mark of the first period, battling and outhustling players near the Blues’ net.

However, the Blues tied it up four minutes later.

In the second period, Yanic Perreault took advantage of excellent ice position and gave the Coyotes a 2-1 edge on a rebound shot.

Midway through the third period, Joseph and a number of penalty-killers came through with a quality effort. They held off the Blues for 68 seconds when St. Louis was on a 5-on-3 advantage.

Emotions ran high shortly after that, and Derek Morris and Keith Tkachuk, a former Coyotes captain, slugged it out and were sent to the penalty box for seven minutes.

Luck, too, was riding with the Coyotes, as several shots came close to making it into the net, and a few others hit the posts.

The Coyotes did what they had to do - knock out as much of the bad taste from Friday’s ugly loss in Minnesota out of their system.

“I was proud of how they played tonight,” Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said.

Coyotes report
Cheers
To the Coyotes’ hustle and willingness to do the little things that normally don’t merit much attention, unless they’re not done. Killing five power plays, including a 5-on-3, was huge.

Jeers
The Coyotes again had trouble on the power play, missing all fourthree opportunities.

Our 3 stars
1. Curtis Joseph, Coyotes, 25 saves from all angles.
2. Yanic Perreault, Coyotes, game-winning goal.
3. Owen Nolan, Coyotes, first goal set the tone.

View from the press box
It was hard to tell what had more impact — Owen Nolan’s first-period goal or the fact that he engaged in a spirited fight with the Blues’ Barret Jackman. It was a score the Coyotes needed to lift their spirits after being shut out the night before, and it was one of those smart fights that served a purpose.

Quelle: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/1126yotesgamer1126.html 

Gretzky scratches Nagy for ‘inexcusable’ error

Jim Gintonio
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 26, 2006 12:00 AM

ST. LOUIS - Staying on the ice and skating hard for only a few more seconds might have kept Ladislav Nagy out of coach Wayne Gretzky’s doghouse. But the Coyotes left wing made the mistake of leaving the ice on a power play just before the Minnesota Wild scored a short-handed goal en route to a 4-0 victory on Friday.

Nagy was scratched before Saturday’s game in St. Louis, and Gretzky said his status remains uncertain.

One thing was certain: Gretzky sent a message to both Nagy and the team by showing video of Nagy’s misdeed and announcing to all that he was pulling Nagy from the lineup.

“We’ve gone through a stretch here where, quite honestly, he has one goal in 21 games, and what he did (Friday) was inexcusable,” Gretzky said. “Changing on a two-on-one resulted in their goal, and you can’t do that.

“If I can’t get top players to play within a team structure and play unselfishly, then it’s not going to work for anybody.”

Gretzky added that everything is not Nagy’s fault, and that Nagy is a better player than he showed in the last game. Gretzky said that he’s not convinced that Nagy is healthy after the knee injury he suffered last year.

“But at this point in time, I just felt I had to make a stand as a coach and make the team realize that everyone has to be on the same page. I think he understands it’s up to him to see how he responds, how he battles back.

“Like I said to the players, I was a player and I understand these are the worst days of being a professional athlete when you come off a bad loss, but it’s even worse from a coach’s point of view. I thought we were past these kind of days and meetings because over the last 10 games (before Friday), the effort has been outstanding, and the effort in Minnesota was really poor.

“We didn’t compete and weren’t physical and, again, it’s wasn’t one guy’s fault. It wasn’t Laddy’s fault. He’s not the only culprit. It was all 20 guys, but in saying that, what he did as a player was inexcusable.”

Nagy said he couldn’t remember the last time he was a healthy scratch. He said his knee feels fine.

“It’s the coach’s decision,” said Nagy, who becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season.

Asked what he had to do to regain Gretzky’s confidence, he said, “I don’t know. Ask him.”

Gretzky said it’s pretty simple: play within a team structure and play unselfishly. He said three players who had been on the third line most of this season - Georges Laraque, Oleg Saprykin and Michael Zigomanis - all battled back from adversity to regain their spots. They were on the first line Saturday.

Quelle: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/articles/1126yotesider1126.html

Bild des Spiels:

Nach einem gutem Spiel darf man CuJo auch gratulieren

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GFHL: Lehtonen beim Debut stark!

26.11.2006 von Coyote.

Es war das erste GFHL-Spiel als Starter für die Phoenix Coyotes: Kari Lehtonen bekam gegen die Boston Bruins heute eine Bewährungschance. Diese nutzte er, hielt 23 von 25 Schüssen. Phoenix besiegte Boston mit 3:2.

Die Coyoten hatten das Spiel absolut im Griff, schalteten jedoch nach dem 3:0 zu früh ab und überließen den Bruins das Feld. Die Bruins streckten sich noch einmal, doch Lehtonen hielt nach dem Anschlusstreffer zum 3:2 alles was auf ihn zukam und sicherte somit den Coyoten den Sieg. Die Treffer für Phoenix erzielten Doan (Mara, Reinprecht), Brind’Amour (Nagy) und Zubov (Nagy, Brind’Amour).

Boxscore

Patrik Elias meldete sich nach dem Spiel wieder zurück im Kader der Coyoten. Damit wird es wieder Umstellungen geben - etwas also, was es in den letzten Jahren in Phoenix nicht unbedingt regelmäßig gab. Steve Reinprecht wird auf den rechten Flügel rutschen. Zudem wird er neue Linemates bekommen: er wird ab sofort in der ersten Reihe neben Ladislav Nagy und Rod Brind’Amour stürmen. Der 1st Line Job ist ein Dankeschön dafür, dass Reinprecht nach 12 Spielen nun 12 Punkte auf dem Konto hat. Patrik Elias wird in die zweite Reihe neben Mike Comrie und Shane Doan gehen. Brendan Morrison rutsch zudem wieder in Reihe 4, seinen Job als Center der dritten Reihe übernimmt Mike Johnson, der von Jere Lehtinen auf rechts und Michal Handzus auf linksunterstützt wird. Mike Zigomanis wurde zurück ins Farmteam der Coyotes nach Sarasota geschickt.

Geschrieben in GFHL Coyotes | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »