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The Phoenix Coyotes bottled up the Pittsburgh Penguins and played a very effective game, the end result was a 3-1 win for the Coyotes.
Here are the game highlights:
Here is the possession chart:
The Coyotes came out in the third period of a 2 to 1 game and pushed the play, the result was scoring their third goal of the game. Being up two goals and playing the kind of sound defense that Phoenix executed last night was way too much for the Penguins to overcome.
The Coyotes had a clear game plan coming in and they were able to execute that plan accordingly. Dave Tippet used his home ice advantage to get the matchups that he wanted. Sidney Crosby played 16.6 minutes at even strength last night. Out of those 16.6 minutes Zibnyek Michalek lined up against Crosby for 13.9 and Oliver Ekman-Larsson was on the ice for 13.6 minutes. This defensive duo did an excellent job of keeping the Crosby line quiet.
When Michalek was a Penguin he snapped an incredibly long goal drought against his former Coyotes team, last night he returned the favor. Michalek’s goal against Pittsburgh was his first in 83 games.
The few times that the Crosby line was able to generate any chances Mike Smith was there to shut the door (24 saves), including this mishap by Brian Gibbons. Usually when a player takes the extra split second to stop the puck he is able to lift it up and over, in this case Gibbons was unable to make it happen. Perhaps Gibbons' linemate Sidney Crosby needs to teach him the clever angled stick redirect that he has perfected of the years from that area on the ice.
If Mr. Gibbons is going to stay up on that top line for the time being he is going to have to show some finishing skills when the moments present themselves.
With the Crosby line held in check most of the night the Penguins biggest offensive threats came from the Malkin line. Malkin’s line did generate a good amount of offensive chances at even strength, but were unable to cash in on Mike Smith enough times. This was especially evident in the early stages of the game. The Malkin line poured on pressure for the first half of the game and finally broke through with the Malkin goal in the late 2nd period.
Evgeni Malkin was the Penguins best forward on Saturday night but after the Coyotes scored an insurance goal he let his emotions get the best of him. Malkin had a dustup with Ekman-Larsson that was very unnecessary.
Rob Rossi has an Olympic themed article about Malkin that you can find here .
Kris Letang missed his second consecutive game with what is being described as an “illness…. As of right now there have not been more details released other than that. It is unknown what his status is for Monday night’s game against the Senators. What is certain is that Letang’s skating ability would have been a valuable asset against the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.
Marc Andre Fleury’s road record drops to 10-10-1 with a 2.60 GAA and a save percentage of .899%.
Apparently the ground hog saw his shadow today, that means that there will be no trades for the Penguins until after the Olympic break.
Penguins have the day off today and will get back to work tomorrow.
Enjoy the Super Bowl
Thanks for reading!
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