GLENDALE, Ariz – Even before the fans at the Jobbing.com Arena entered the building, there was a giddiness about the future of their Phoenix Coyotes. Then came the game and ecstasy. A two-goal second period and 32 saves from goalie Mike Smith later, those Coyotes fans were dancing in the streets as their Phoenix squad defeated the Nashville Predators 2-1 in game five of the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. The win puts the Coyotes, who moved to the desert in the mid-1990’s from Winnipeg, into the conference finals for the first time. They will now meet their Pacific Division rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, for the right to go to the Stanley Cup finals. “It’s been hard being a Phoenix Coyotes fan for a few years. It’s so nice to win this one at home and have friends and family in the stands that have been here the whole time,” Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. “It’s nice to get to that next round for them.” An hour before the game, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told the media that the league had reached a tentative agreement with a group led by former San Jose Sharks C.E.O. Greg Jamison to buy the franchise. The completion of the deal, according to Bettman, is “being counted in weeks, not months” as the final details – including Jamison negotiating a new lease with the City of Glendale – are finished off. It was the first good news about the future of the Coyotes in over a year and made for a festive night to begin with. Both teams began with roster changes as Nashville coach Barry Trotz reinserted Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn to try to puff up his Predators team that was shutout in game four. Phoenix Coyotes coach Dave Tippett had his own issues as defenseman Rostislav Klesla was suspended for a hit from behind on Nashville’s Matt Halischuk that put the Predators forward on the sidelines. Nashville had nothing to lose, needing to win the next three games to both stay alive and to move on. Trotz’ troops game out with aggression, taking the action to the Coyotes for much of the first period. Smith, who a year ago was sitting on the bench in Tampa watching Dwayne Roloson take the Lightning to the Eastern Conference finals, picked up where he left off on Friday, thwarting every Nashville opportunity. Smith stopped all 10 shots he faced while his counterpart, Predators’ goalie Pekka Rinne, wasn’t as busy but turned away the five shots he saw to keep the score 0-0 after one period. The Predators continued to push and press as the middle period opened but their strategy cost them dearly. Seconds before the four minute mark, Doan was sent out on a partial breakaway but his shot missed the net. He followed it and swung the puck to Antoine Vermette who sent a pretty cross-ice pass to defenseman Derek Morris. Morris drifted in and unloaded a low, hard drive that Rinne got a piece of but it continued into the net for the game’s first goal. Smith continued to frustrate the Predators through the middle part of the stanza, with a little help from the posts and his friends. Kostitsyn beat Smith with a wrister but it caught the iron and bounced away, somehow jumping over the stick blade of Radulov who had half the net open if he had gotten it. Seconds later, the puck came back to Kostitsyn who fired it at the net but Mikkel Boedker, collapsing down to help out, blocked the shot harmlessly to the corner. The Coyotes needed to turn the momentum and they did so with the defense turning a foray by Nashville into instant offense. All five Phoenix players collapsed down to thwart a Predators attack and turned the puck into a break. Defenseman Daymond Langkow sent an indirect stretch pass to Kyle Chipchura on the move at the Nashville blue line. Chipchura drove into the zone and curled along the far boards looking for a trailer. He saw Martin Hanzel coming across the line and laid a pass back to the on-charging center. Hanzel got to the top of the circle and whipped a wrister high to Rinne’s glove side and into the back of the net, doubling the Phoenix lead to two and sending the fans into a frenzy. “We kept them outside. We packed it in around our net. We did a lot of bend and didn’t break,” Tippett said. “They have some high skill on that team. If you allow them easy chances, they’re going to take advantage so we tried to make the chances they did get as contested as possible.” Down by two and having just twenty minutes to do something about it, the Predators threw everything but the kitchen sink at Smith in the third. They continually rushed four players on breaks, trying to catch the Coyotes napping with odd-man attacks but time after time, either Smith or his defensemen were there to keep the puck out of the net (the Coyotes registered 17 blocks in the game). Finally, with one tick under six minutes left in regulation, the Predators got on the board. A Nashville shot from the near circle was blocked to the far side where David Legwand collected it. He looked to the middle and saw teammate Colin Wilson streaking down the slot by himself. Legwand laid a perfect pass to the middle where Wilson redirected it past Smith to give the Predators some life. The score was just a momentary blip for Smith, who slammed the door shut the rest of the way. It wasn’t easy as most of those final minutes were spent in his end with Predators buzzing all around him. Somehow he managed to keep the puck out of the net, keeping this Cinderella season in the sun alive and charting a course into uncharted territory. For the Predators, it was a series of missed chances. “We just couldn’t bury our chances. We had enough of them,” Trotz said. “We ran into a goaltender who was outstanding and the guys in front of him – their defense corps and the forwards – they blocked a lot of shots when they needed to, found a way to keep the puck out of the net. In the end, we had enough chances to win this series but we didn’t win.” Game Notes: The final shots for the game were 33-17 in favor of the Predators…Nashville’s power play went 0-for-4 in the contest for a series count of 3-for-19. The Predators finished the series going zero for their last 13 chances…Phoenix was 0-for-1 with the man advantage in game five and just 1-for-12 in the series. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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