GLENDALE
Rasmus Ristolainen Jersey , Ariz. — There wasn’t much open ice for the Calgary Flames, not many shooting lanes, not much room to get the puck past an
on-his-game goaltender.A team with multiple high-quality scorers hasn’t
experienced much of that recently while winning three of four and eight of 12,
but the Flames did during a 2-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and goaltender
Marc Andre-Fleury on Friday night.“These are the games you’ve got to get used
to,” Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano said. “That’s what the league’s going to
be about, especially as the year goes on. That’s desperate (Vegas) team over
there. They’re battling to get in the race.”Article continues below ...The
Arizona Coyotes know all about that. Only a few weeks ago, they were the team
that was beating opponents with speed and a defensive system that was creating
plenty of offense with its ability to turn the puck over. They also were scoring
more short-handed goals (10) than many teams were on the power play.But the
Coyotes have lost three in a row and eight of 10 after winning five straight,
and they may be reaching the point that determines whether they’ll trend upward
or downward the rest of the season.Just as the Flames will be looking to get
back on their recent hot streak, the Coyotes will be trying for a turnaround win
when they close out a five-game homestand against he Flames on Sunday at Gila
River Arena. The Coyotes are 1-2-1 on the homestand so far, and they’re not
winning mostly because they’re not scoring. They’ve generated two goals or fewer
in six of their last seven games.“As coaches, you’ve got to be careful when
you’re not scoring because you magnify everything,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
said Saturday. “You want to loosen guys up, but at the same time there’s got to
be urgency by some players. We don’t have the type of team that can only have
13, 14 people going.”At about the same time the Flames weren’t generating any
offense a few hundred miles away in Las Vegas on Friday, the Coyotes never got
much going during a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche that represented one of
their worst efforts of the season.J.T. Compher
Greg Pateryn Jersey Womens , injured and out of the Colorado lineup for six weeks, returned to score twice short-handed on the same shift in the first
period, and Mikko Rantanen scored moments later to finish a three-goal sequence
in 2:11 that effectively ended it.“I thought we were going good and then, all of
a sudden, the rails came off,” Tocchet said. “That’s what we can’t do, duplicate
mistakes. That’s kind of the microcosm of the team right now.”The Coyotes are
aware that the Flames can turn on the offense in a hurry, too, as Calgary
averages 3.26 goals per game to Arizona’s 2.43. Flames left winger Matthew
Tkachuk has five goals in five games and center Sean Monahan has three goals in
four games.“They’ve got some high-skill guys, they play an offensive game and
we’re aware of that,” Arizona defenseman Alex Goligoski said. “For us, it’s
getting back to our game and being real stingy defensively and getting to their
net and throwing a ton of pucks at them.”It would help if forward Clayton Keller
would rev up his game. After scoring five goals in five games, Keller doesn’t
have a goal in 11 games, or since Oct. 27.Similarly, Calgary right winger James
Neal doesn’t have a goal in nine games
Womens Luke Kunin Jersey , but coach Bill Peters likes that Neal took seven shots — four of which were blocked — against Vegas.Arizona goaltender
Antti Raanta returned from an eight-game layoff with a lower-body injury to
start Friday and allow all five Colorado goals, and he’ll be back in net Sunday,
according to Tocchet.Former Coyotes goalie Mike Smith held down the starter’s
net during the Flames’ practice on Saturday, but starter David Rittich is 8-2
with a 2.04 goals-against average and, until Friday, hadn’t lost since Oct. 23.
Peters declined Saturday to name a starter. LAS VEGAS (AP) Jonathan Marchessault
vowed after the Golden Knights‘ morning skate to come out swinging in Game 3 of
the Western Conference final, looking to avoid a back-and-forth affair with the
Winnipeg Jets.He didn’t disappoint.For the second straight game, Marchessault
scored two goals – including one just 35 seconds into the game – to lead Vegas
to a 4-2 victory Wednesday night, helping the expansion Golden Knights to a 2-1
series lead.Vegas, two wins from advancing to the Stanley Cup final, improved to
5-1 at home in the playoffs and host Game 4 on Friday night.”We worked all year
to get in a position like that,” Marchessault said. ”We definitely can’t take it
for granted. They got to come out like their season’s on the line, so we’ve got
to be ready to push back and get some energy off the crowd.”Marchessault added
an empty-net goal with 3 seconds left, becoming the first player in league
history to score in the first and last 60 seconds of the same Stanley Cup
playoff game, according to the NHL. He leads Vegas with 17 points (eight
goals
Marcus Foligno Jersey , nine assists) in the postseason, and needs two goals to tie the NHL record for the most by a player in his club’s first
postseason appearance.James Neal and Alex Tuch also scored for Vegas, while
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots.Mark Scheifele scored both of Winnipeg’s
goals and has a playoff-leading 14 goals in 15 postseason games. Connor
Hellebuyck had 26 saves for the Jets, who arrived in Las Vegas having outscored
their opposition 23-15 in road games during the playoffs.”A few miscues and they
made us pay for it; that can’t happen,” Scheifele said. ”We can’t sulk on this
too long. We’ve got to pick ourselves up tomorrow and be ready for a big game on
Friday.”Scheifele is correct, with history against the Jets, who are trailing in
a series for the first time this postseason. Teams with a 2-1 lead in the
conference final (or NHL semifinals) have won the series 35 of 43 times (81.4
percent) since 1975.”That’s an important challenge,” Jets coach Paul Maurice
said. ”We’re going to have to be able to handle that. It would be rare that you
lead the series straight through. We want to make sure we deal with our loss,
don’t carry it too heavily and then come up with our finest game of the
post-season.”The problem for Winnipeg is stopping a Golden Knights team that is
finally seeing production from the depth of its lineup.While Marchessault got
things going early to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead, their second line of
Neal, Tuch and Erik Haula continued to heat up.After Scheifele tied the game in
the second period, Neal answered 12 seconds later after Haula dished a perfect
pass to give the Knights a 2-1 lead. Tuch notched his fifth goal of the playoffs
after Neal fed him with a nifty pass from behind the net.”They played on the
road trip, they just didn’t have many chances to score and I thought they were
more involved in the offense and they were skating, and they played really
well,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said about his second line.Scheifele’s second
goal of the game 18 seconds into the third seemingly sparked the Jets
http://www.officialwild.com/authentic-adidas-matt-dumba-jersey , but they couldn’t solve Fleury, who made several huge saves late in the game to
preserve Vegas’ lead.After stonewalling Tyler Myers‘ breakaway attempt with
11:50 left in the game, he stymied Scheifele’s back-to-back shot with 9:30
remaining. Less than two minutes later, he smothered the puck with a slew of
players piled near the crease.”He’s made unbelievable saves,” Gallant said of
Fleury. ”They were obviously important at a key time for us. That’s Fleury. He’s
been great all playoffs, he’s been great all year for us. He’s a guy that has
fun out there. I’m sweating on the bench yelling my head off and I look down
there and he’s just having fun.”He sure is. During a scrum behind the Golden
Knights’ net with 2:34 left in the second period, Fleury reached over and
tickled the left ear of the Jets’ Blake Wheeler – whose back was to the
goalie.”I was just sitting there and people, they were fighting,” Fleury said,
”and (I was) trying to have a little smile by myself. That was it.”Winnipeg
pulled Hellebuyck with 1:03 left, but Marchessault’s empty-netter with 3 seconds
left sealed the win.”I didn’t imagine it in October and November, but come
around January, we knew we had a good hockey team,” Gallant said. ”I didn’t know
if we’d go this far right now, but I knew we had (as good) a chance as anybody
else. Early January
Mikael Granlund Jersey , around the All-Star game, I was a strong believer in our team. I knew we were going to battle well, compete well and no one was
going to push us over, that’s for sure.”NOTES: The Jets had scored a power-play
goal in 11 of the 13 playoff games, but was 0 for 2 with a man advantage in this
one. … Winnipeg hadn’t lost back-to-back games during the playoffs. The last
time it dropped consecutive games was a three-game losing streak (0-2-1) from
March 10-13. … The Golden Knights welcomed the family of Humboldt Broncos head
coach and GM Darcy Haugan, wife Christina and children Carson and Jackson. …
With his two goals, Scheifele now owns the NHL record for most goals scored on
the road in a single playoffs with 11, surpassing Sidney Crosby and Joe Mullen,
each with 10.UP NEXTGame 4 is Friday night in Las Vegas.
