TOO MANY PENALTIES COSTLY IN LOSS

By Sergey Kocharov

If you put your team in a predicament of surrendering 10 power play opportunities against an offensive powerhouse like the Philadelphia Flyers, the end result will most likely be in the loss column.

Such was the case on Saturday night at America West Arena as the Phoenix Coyotes allowed three power play goals in 10 opportunities in a 5-4 setback to the Flyers. 

After allowing two goals in the first three games of the season, the Coyotes have now given up 10 goals in their last two games. 

Not exactly a recipe for success. 

“You can see what the score sheet says, obviously we took too many penalties,” said CoyotesÂ’ captain Shane Doan, who scored his second goal of the season just 18 seconds into the third period.  “When the guys are killing penalties, it takes a lot out of them. We must play a much more disciplined game if we want to be successful. We need to stick to the system and do all the simple things.”

Phoenix head coach Bob Francis echoed DoanÂ’s comments.

“The gist of the game was that we were in the box way too many times,” said Francis of a Coyotes team which had killed off 21 of 23 power plays against entering tonight’s play. “With the skill level Philadelphia has you’re looking for trouble and we sure found it tonight. We spent too much time in the box and specialty teams was the difference.”

On the bright side, the Coyotes – who trailed the entire game – never stopped battling and almost pulled this one out at the end.

Trailing 5-3 late in the third period, Coyotes forward Branko Radivojevic tallied his first goal of the season to bring Phoenix back within one at the 14:07 mark of the third period.  But FlyersÂ’ netminder Jeff Hackett – who came into tonightÂ’s contest not allowing a goal in his first two starts of the season – shut the door the rest of the way to record his third victory of the season.

“For the most part, I thought we played a pretty strong game,” said Phoenix goaltender Sean Burke, who turned aside 30 of 35 shots. “Every Flyer team comes out in the first 10 minutes of the game and tries to intimidate you and then settles into the game and we know that.

“That team is notorious for trying to intimidate. They’re not the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970’s – it just plays into their hand. I don’t know if every penalty was warranted, but I guess we just have to adjust to that. It’s just frustrating that we got caught up in that – because that’s their game plan.”

The undisciplined play of the Coyotes is something the team must address.  

“We got away from our game and that ended up costing us,” said Daymond Langkow, who collected his second assist of the season on Ladislav NagyÂ’s goal in the first period.  “We want to play physical, but be smart about it.  They are one of the best teams in the league.  We came to play tonight and we just the short end of the stick.”