After winning their first 7 games of the season, the San Jose Sharks have lost their last 4 contests, 2 of them coming by way of the shootout. The coyotes turned in a spectacular defensive performance in front of a sell out crowd in the Shark Tank, winning 1-0 in a shootout. There were plenty of offensive opportunities for both teams however, goaltenders Mike Smith and Antti Niemi stood up to the task stopping every shot through 3 periods and the overtime period. Mike Smith knew that this was going to be a tough task against an offensive juggernaut, one that was almost robotic of the power play through the first 5 games of the season.

Not on this night, Smith stopped all 33 shots that the Sharks put on net and they successfully killed off all 4 power play opportunities that the Sharks had, including 2 for delay of game(shooting the puck over the glass) in the 3rd period alone. Smith continued his absolute dominance of the Sharks, a team that he shutout three times last season, this win bring his record to 6-3-1 over them in his career.

As for opposing netminder, Antti Niemi, he stopped all of the shots he had to deal with as well, earning his first shutout of the season. Until the shootout began. The only time the pucks went into the net were in each of the first two rounds of the shootout when Mikkel Boedker and Radim Vrbata beat Niemi with dekes to opposite sides to win the game for the Yotes.

Throughout this game there were plenty of scoring chances going both ways, but none that truly threatened either goaltenders all too much. Mikkel Boedker generated a half-hearted breakaway on Niemi but simply ran our of real-estate and was forced to throw a weak backhander towards Niemi. Goalless, Ryane Clowe was the generation of the offense for the Sharks putting 7 shots on the net.

Martin Hanzal left the game for what has apparently been called precautionary reasons, possibly related to his “lower body injury” that he has been dealing with for most of the season. On the other end of the spectrum, Brent Burns played in his first game of the season, returning from his “lower body injury”. Burns was solid defensively, took one penalty and notched 2 hits under his belt.

This 1-0 shootout win brings the Coyotes record to 5-5-2 on the season, their 12 points on the season brings them to 9th place in he Western Conference which will certainly be extremely close throughout the entire season. The Coyotes look to build off of their strong performance on Monday night when they travel to Colorado to take on the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.

After a bit of a rocky start for the Western Conference finalists, the Coyotes have taken their second consecutive win at home beating the Minnesota Wild by a score of 2-1. This win solidifies Mike Smith’s shutout of division rival Dallas just two nights ago.

The Coyotes got off to a hot start against the Wild putting 17 shots on goal in the opening period, however they were only able to put 1 up on the scoreboard, where it really counts. The goal scored by Lauri Korpikoski his 4th of the season was assisted by stout D-man Keith Yandle. The Coyotes were then able to add to their lead on a goal scored by Martin Hanzal at 7:48 of the 2nd period.

Minnesota tallied their one and only goal 30 seconds after the midway point of the second period when Zach Parise stole the breakout pass in the Coyote zone and ripped a wrister past Mike Smith to make the score 2-1. This was the 200th career goal for Parise and honestly the lone bright spot for an otherwise lackluster performance by the Wild.

Phoenix outshot Minnesota 34-22. Something that he Coyotes are not exactly used to seeing on the scoresheet following any game. It’s usually the Coyotes defending their zone the majority of the game, not the other way around. This can be attributed to very disciplined play by the Coyotes through the first two periods of play, taking zero penalties until Steve Sullivan hooked Torrey Mitchell at 8:49 of the 3rd period. Later on in the 3rd period, Derek Morris took a penalty for holding the stick, again of Torrey Mitchell. The Coyotes killed off both of these infractions with a couple of scares, however, no shots were officially recorded on net during the two powerplay attempts by the Wild.

Late in the game, 3rd star Zbynek Michalek was hit up high by what looked to be a stick and was taken to the dressing room with about a minute to go in the game. While I don’t see any reason for concern, it is worth noting that this guy goes down to block any shot that he can throughout a hockey game and truly deserved the 3rd star of this game, along with his assist on the Hanzal goal in the 2nd period.

In the final seconds of the game, the Coyotes stayed at home, and didn’t get distracted by the open net that was vacated by Backstrom with just under a minute left to play. Defense came first (as it ALWAYS seems to under Dave Tippett) and this truly sealed the win for the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Coyotes pick up their 10th point of the shortened season and a record of 4-4-2, moving them to 6th place in the Western Conference. The look to continue their short home win streak against the red-hot Chicago Blackhawks at Jobing.com Arena Thursday night at 9:00pm ET.