The Blackhawks played a much better game Tuesday night than they did Monday night. But not according to the scoreboard.
This time they had 39 shots on goal and were beaten by the Phoenix Coyotes 3-1. The night before they had only 11 shots and lost to the Los Angeles Kings 2-1.
In winning their fifth game in a row and extending their undefeated streak to seven (6-0-1), the Coyotes seized the initiative by getting first-period breakaway goals from Daniel Briere and Brad May.
“It was unfortunate,” said Hawks coach Brian Sutter. “On both situations the defense (Jaroslav Spacek and Chris McAlpine) got caught looking at the puck and away they went up the ice.”
The Hawks solved Phoenix goalie Robert Esche only once, late in the second period when Eric Daze’s post-to-post pass set up Michael Nylander for a power-play tap-in.
But Esche refused to get rattled. He made 19 saves in the third period. Then Esche got an insurance policy on Michal Handzus’ empty-net goal.
“Our effort wasn’t very good,” said Phoenix coach Bob Francis. “We were playing a team that played [Monday] night and had a couple key injuries (center Alex Zhamnov and defenseman Boris Mironov). We should have stepped on them hard and we didn’t.
“We dodged a bullet. Robert Esche came up with a huge, huge effort at an important time. Robert stole one for us.”
Phoenix’s regular goalie, Sean Burke, got the night off with a bad case of stomach flu.
“Esche had to be good and he was,” said Sutter. “We had enough chances to win. The key is to play like that every night.”
By winning, Phoenix moved into fifth place in the Western Conference, five points back of the fourth-place Hawks. The Coyotes and Los Angeles both have 75 points in 66 games, but Phoenix has the edge in head-to-head competition.
Like many others, Hawks captain Tony Amonte is surprised to see the Coyotes being so successful.
“When a team turns over players like they have, you don’t think they’ll get it going right away in the right direction the way they have,” said Amonte.
At one point the Coyotes were 20 points back of the Hawks.
“We’re now fighting teams that we forgot about [trying to catch] two or three months ago,” said Briere.
