Everything seemed to be going right for the Coyotes until it wasn’t as they blew a two-goal lead and lost 3-2 to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night in heartbreaking fashion. 20240116_PostGame_Torigny_FTP The Coyotes lost 6-2 to the Flames less than a week ago, but bounced back on Saturday with a 6-0 win over the Minnesota Wild. Through the first 40 minutes, the game was relatively even, but the Coyotes led 1-0 due to a Sean Durzi goal and the spectacular play of Connor Ingram who was just coming off of his fifth shutout. At the 6:37 mark of the third period, Logan Cooley scored his fourth goal of the year making it 2-0 Coyotes. By the direction the game was going, it looked as if the Coyotes were going to steal a critical game on the road. All of the sudden though, everything just slipped away from them. The Flames perceived to score two unanswered goals 1:03 apart from each other to tie the game and stun Arizona. The contest ultimately would be pushed to overtime where the Coyotes committed a costly too many men on the ice penalty leading to a Yegor Sharangovich goal. Despite ending the night with one point, this was a crushing defeat for the Coyotes and there is no other way to slice it. They were on the brink of winning on the road against a team that they are competing with in the Western Conference wild card race. Instead they could not hold on to a multi-goal lead in the third period and lost even more ground in the playoff hunt which is only getting tougher. Arizona made some mistakes as well throughout the game. On both Flames’ goals, there were defensive breakdowns. Coach André Tourigny preached pregame that the Coyotes have to be better defensively and while they were for the majority of the night, a couple bad mistakes did cost them down the stretch. The Coyotes were also undisciplined, committing six penalties. On the road it’s nearly impossible to win when going to the penalty box six times. Maybe the Flames only scored one power play goal, but their undisciplined play is still a problem Arizona must fix moving forward. When up by two or more goals, the Coyotes have to find a way to win and it’s just that simple. If Arizona truly wants to be a playoff team, it’s these kinds of games that they have to learn to close out. Overall the Coyotes actually played a really solid game, but it’s the little mistakes that have to be cleaned up. The Coyotes play the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night in hopes to recover from this gut wrenching loss.
