Coyotes keep climbing

It is a measure of how tough the Western Conference playoff race is when the Phoenix Coyotes - who have won six of their past 10 games - can be three points behind Pacific Division-leading San Jose, yet be just four points ahead of ninth-place Dallas. But that’s the reality the Yotes face and luckily for them goalie Ilya Bryzgalov appears to be up to the challenge.

With a 32-18-8 record, 2.54 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and six shutouts, Bryzgalov is helping Phoenix keep pace in the standings and also making a good case for a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder. In his past two games, the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, clearly is the franchise’s most valuable player, has a sparkling 1.51 GAA and .953 save percentage.

The Coyotes will need Bryzgalov to be just as sharp the rest of the regular season, but they’ll also need to reverse a trend that, if followed, could knock them out of the playoff picture: the franchise has a 22-12-5 road record and a less-impressive 17-12-6 mark at Jobing.com Arena, but only has two remaining road games and six at home. Three of those final eight games are against non-playoff teams (St. Louis, Columbus and Colorado), but three games against the fearsome San Jose Sharks could mean the difference between an early golf season and a shot at the Stanley Cup.

The Hockey News ranks the teams 1-30 each Monday based on a combination of last week’s play and a squad’s overall outlook.

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