Phoenix blanks Chicago on emotional night
One week ago, the Coyotes were 13 points behind the Chicago Blackhawks and mired in 12th place in the Western Conference.
Eight days later, the Coyotes ran their winning streak to a season-high five games after shutting out the ice-cold Blackhawks 3-0. Chicago is winless in eight straight games (0-7-1) and dead in the water with 65 points. And the Coyotes, with 10 points in eight days, are now sitting in eighth place, just three points behind the sixth-place Blackhawks and four points behind the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks.
Where did that come from?
On Saturday, in front of a standing-room only crowd of 17,353 on hand to see Jeremy Roenick inducted into the Coyotes ring of honor, the current Phoenix players showed those who have skipped the last few seasons of hockey in Glendale what they've been missing. They scored twice in the first six minutes, riding the emotion in the building, and handed the rest off to goalie Mike Smith, who has allowed all of three goals in the last four games with the help of a stifling defensive effort from his teammates.
The Coyotes paid tribute to "JR" themselves with an effort to make old No. 97 proud -- featuring goals, fights and plenty of crowd-pleasing plays to delight a full barn to beat the team that gave Roenick his start.
"Everyone was so jacked up after seeing Styles (Roenick) honored and then Chipper (Kyle Chipchura) starting the game off with a fight really got us going," defenseman Keith Yandle said. "We're playing well, the house was packed and we kept winning. You remember nights like this."
Chipchura, who continues to amaze with his level of play and leadership abilities from a player that was supposed to provide it in the AHL this season, started things with a long fight with Chicago's Andrew Shaw less than two minutes into play and capped the scoring with a rare goal, his second in his last 84 NHL games.
"We knew we were going to play a desperate team that was going to come out hard and come after us," Chipchura said. "But our team responded well. We matched that energy and we had the jump on them.
The Coyotes now head out on the road to test their streak Monday in Vancouver and Thursday in Los Angeles -- against a Kings team they suddenly trail by just one point in the standings.
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